18 SNAKE-POISON AND ITS ACTION. 



healthy cells and fibres. There being no visible 

 structural change we are driven to the conclusion that 

 only a functional one has been effected by the poison, 

 and with the symptoms observed all pointing in that 

 direction, that it is of central origin. 



The writer's theory as to the action of snake- 

 poison, formed, in the first instance from observations 

 made at the bedside of his patients only, is thus con- 

 firmed by experiments specially instituted by him for 

 -that purpose. Further proof of its correctness we 

 have in the brilliant results of the strychnine treat- 

 ment of snakebite in Australia, which is the outcome 

 and practical application of this theory. In those 

 desperate cases more especially, reported from all parts 

 of the colonies, in which death was imminent, and 

 pulse at -wrists as well as respiration had already 

 ceased, the strychnine injections could not possibly 

 have effected complete recovery within a few hours 

 if the structure of the nerve centres had been impaired 

 or blood changes brought about incompatible with 

 life. 



Feoktistow's experiments, made with viper poison, 

 fully bear out the correctness of the writer's theory, 

 besides proving that there is no essential difference 

 between the action of the viperine and colubrine 

 poisons. He proved conclusively that snake-poison 

 does not destroy protoplasm or interfere with infusorial 

 life, that injected into the heart of a mollusc it causes 

 an almost immediate cessation of its action, that 



