8 President's Address 



The existence of cells in the blood of the individual who 

 died from the cobra's poison, different from those found incases 

 of pyaemia, lencocythseruia, and other diseases, was warmly 

 contested in this Society, and you will remember the ani- 

 mated discussions we had on the subject ; but those who have 

 carefully observed the blood in snake-poisoned individuals, 

 cannot, I should imagine, be in the least doubt as to the 

 fact of the presence of these cells. My friend and I 

 were very sceptical on this point, and at first failed to see 

 them, but afterwards we felt no longer any question in our 

 minds either as to their presence or to their size being greater 

 than that of any cells in the blood we had ever witnessed or 

 seen described. 



Whether this particular cell-growth is peculiar to snake- 

 poisoned blood, or whether it may be found in the blood after 

 death from other causes, especially in cases where the blood 

 remains fluid, is a question not }^et determined, but one that 

 still occupies Professor Halford's attention, and one to which 

 he invites the general attention of microscopists as well 

 worthy of a searching inquiry. He tells us that in most 

 careful observations, repeated very many times, he traces the 

 growth of the cell out of the germinal matter before alluded 

 to ; that first the nucleus appears, then the cell wall. This, if 

 established, is an important point, and one upon which 

 many of our greatest physiologists are not agreed. Kolliker 

 and Yirchow holding the view that all cell-growth proceeds 

 from pre-existing cells, while Schleiden and Schwaan be- 

 lieved they always grew out of structureless granular matter ; 

 Beale, a later authority, working with higher microscopic 

 powers, leans also to this latter view. 



Professor Halford considers that snake-poison acts as a 

 kind of ferment in the blood, and that the oxygen which is 

 required to keep it in a condition to support vitality, is used 

 up by the cell-growth, thereby causing the death of the 



