SNAKE-POISON AND ITS ACTION. 19 



hypodermic injections of it in fish produce contraction 

 of the pigment cells and bleaching of the integuments, 

 followed by asphyxial respiration, general paralysis 

 and death. Similar results were observed on frogs. 

 In mammals the symptoms were : dyspnoea, asphyxia, 

 paresis and paralysis of the lower extremities with 

 succeeding general paralysis, sometimes tonic and 

 clonic convulsions, haemorrhages from bowels, lungs, 

 nose and bladder, and finally complete paralysis of 

 respiration and of heart. 



Action of Snake-Poison on Special 

 Nerve Centres. 



It must be borne in mind that the symptoms as 

 about to be detailed are successive only to some extent 

 in the order presented. They commence generally at 

 the lower part of the spinal cord, but immediately 

 afterwards, if not simultaneously, are ushered in with 

 great rapidity from other centres, masking each other 

 and rendering it extremely difficult to observe and 

 analyse them separately. They are also very variable 

 through the poison concentrating its action on special 

 centres, leaving others comparatively intact, and this 

 not only when from different varieties of snakes, but 

 also from snakes of the same variety. Another element 

 increasing the difficulties of correct analysis are the 

 depressing effects of fear, inseparable in all but the 

 strongest minds from the consciousness of having been 



