for the year 1868. 9 



bitten individual. After death we find the dark fluid blood 

 rapidly absorbs oxygen when exposed to the air, and be- 

 comes bright in colour ; the fibrine has also disappeared, or 

 at all events has become so far degraded by some molecular 

 change as to be no longer coagulable. 



Although we may regard these investigations as of the highest 

 importance, not only in their direct reference to the question of 

 snake-poisoning and animal poisons generally, as wellasto that 

 cell-growth and the study of the chemistry and physiology of 

 of the blood, yet it must be confessed that the great ques- 

 tion of saving from death those bitten by snakes is still an 

 unsolved problem ; the light thrown upon the whole subject, 

 however,, appears to indicate a path by which the rational 

 treatment of these cases may be arrived at. But little, after 

 all, is known of the functions of the blood or of its connec- 

 tion with nutrition of the tissues and vital force, or of its 

 intricate, chemical, and physical changes in disease; and 

 it is from inquiries of this kind, philosophically conducted, 

 that we must look for progress in this most difficult and at 

 present obscure branch of human knowledge. Such in- 

 quiries, however, for their successful pursuit, appear to 

 require not only a knowledge of physiology and pathology, 

 but of the highest chemistry and physics generally — a rare 

 combination to be met with in one individual; and it sug- 

 gests at once that scientific progress in the treatment of dis- 

 ease will come but slowly, until natural philosophy and 

 chemistry, especially in its dynamical aspect, form as large 

 a part of a medical student's training as even anatomy 

 itself. 



Mr. Rusden's paper, " On the Ethics of Opinion,' was read 

 at the September meeting ; it treated of how far men are 

 properly liable to blame or praise, reward or punishment, for 

 their thoughts or actions. The novelty of character of 

 this contribution may have given rise to an impression 



