SNAKE-POISON AND ITS 

 ACTION. 



The poison gland of snakes is the analogue of the 

 parotid gland of mammals, both in position and struc- 

 ture. Its acini or alveoli are lined with a layer of 

 secretory, columnar, finely granular cells and arranged 

 with great regularity along the excretory duct, which 

 is straight and cylindrical and opens with vipers into 

 the hollow poison fang, with our colubrines into the 

 groove on the anterior surface of it. Snake-poison, 

 as it leaves this gland, is a thin, albuminoid, yellow 

 liquid of neutral reaction. On exposure to the air it 

 becomes viscid and slightly acid. Of its chemical 

 composition we know as yet but little, and it is very 

 questionable whether the most perfect chemical analysis 

 of its constituents would ever have given us a clue to 

 its action or will enrich our present knowledge of it. 

 Like all albuminoid secreta it becomes putrid after 

 prolonged exposure and then, through ammonia pro- 

 duction, loses its acid, and assumes an alkaline re- 

 action, still, however, though in a modified degree, 

 retaining its toxic properties, which are completely 

 lost only after an exposure of many months. Feok- 

 tistow found that freezing at 1° R. caused the poison 

 to separate into a solid mass and a thin, very yellow 



