16 SNAKE-POtSOlf AND ITS ACTION. 



liquid, which, even at a temperature of 4° R., remained 

 liquid, and the poisonous properties of which greatly 

 exceeded those of the solid mass. Boiling diminishes 

 and, continued for any length of time, completely des- 

 troys the potency of the poison . 



The microscope has done good service ^n the 

 investigation of snake-poison. It has, in the first 

 place, informed us with absolute certainty that there 

 are no micro-organisms or germs of any kind in the 

 fresh poison immediately after it leaves the gland. 

 But a still more important revelation we owe to it is 

 the fiict that these organisms, when we introduce them 

 into a 2 % solution of the poison, do not die, but live, 

 multiply, and enjoy their existence most lustily, as 

 they do in any other non-poisonous albuminoid liquid, 

 whilst animals of a higher type — say a snail or a frog 

 — soon perish in it. In watching the movements of 

 the latter we find that they get slower and slower, 

 and finally cease. We now follow up the interesting 

 research, and take two frogs. Under the skin of one 

 of them we inject a few drops of the poison solution, 

 the other one for comparison we leave intact, and place 

 both into a glass globe partly filled with water. In a 

 very short time we have no difficulty to identify the 

 poisoned frog. Its hind legs begin to drop and their 

 movements become sluggish. This difficulty increases 

 from minute to minute, until at last all motion ceases, 

 and the legs hang down completely paralysed. A.t 

 the same time we observe that the animal shows 

 increasing difficulty of breathing, that, even when taken 



