Proceedings, &c. } for 1868. xi 



Professor Halford afterwards referred to the plan adopted by- 

 Professor Harvey of University College, who had made many experi- 

 ments with poisoned animals, more especially with the puff adder. 

 It was to mix thoroughly the arterial blood with 100 parts of air, 

 and after 24 hours the following results were obtained : — 



From the blood of a healthy dog. ^rom the Wo^dof ado* bitten 



Oxygen 19-700 17*09 



Carbonic Acid ... 0'409 1-09 



Nitrogen 79-891 81-82 



The President stated that he had lately opened the veins in the 

 leg of a dog bitten by a tiger snake and sent to him by Professor 

 Halford, and after six hours had elapsed inspected the blood, which 

 he then found in a perfectly normal healthy condition. A subsequent 

 inspection enabled him to see a nebulous matter among the granules, 

 and a number of peculiarly shaped cells containing one, two, three 

 and four nuclei ; so large as he should think would prevent them being 

 confounded with white corpuscles. After twenty hours he had again 

 examined the blood and found the cells had increased ; the blood 

 was full of crystals, and on applying magenta he found they coloured 

 easily and were better seen. The next day the action of the magenta 

 had caused the cells to appear as if they had burst. 



Mr. Foord corroborated the statements of Mr. Ellery, with whom 

 he had inspected the blood. 



Dr. Ealph differed from the results arrived at by the President. 



Mr. W. S. Gibbons had examined a dog bitten by a tiger snake 

 and sent to him by Professor Halford. He recognized the cells and 

 nuclei, the most of which were opaque, but could not discover the 

 red crystals spoken of. 



Mr. Gillbee called back the attention of members to the instru- 

 ment placed before them that evening by Professor Halford, for as 

 whatever was recommended by the Royal Society carried with it a 

 certain value, he thought it as well that any objection raised should be 

 plainly stated. He did not consider the scissors altogether suitable to 

 the purposes for which they had been designed. The first thing in 

 snake-bite was to excise the bitten part, and in doing that the main 

 thing was to go beyond the fang without reference to the quantity of 

 skin cut off. He did not think the instrument now shown was con- 

 structed to go deep enough, and if not, the public in using it would 

 be misled. It was necessary to cut from a J to J an inch in depth 

 to insure safety in any excision, and this, he believed could not be 

 done with the scissors now shown. He freely admitted the 

 ingenuity of the invention, but would certainly prefer to operate 

 with a scalpel. 



Professor Halford, in a general reply, referred to the observations 

 of Messrs. Ellery and Foord, as carrying out his previously 

 asserted theory. With regard to the objection taken to the pair of 



