SNAKE-POISON AND ITS ACTION. 21 



motion, even after the muscles of the neck have become 

 paretic and the head is held up with difficulty or sinks 

 to one side. 



With birds, according to Feoktistow, the reverse 

 is the case. The wings are usually first attacked, or 

 paresis comes on in wings and legs at the same time. 



B.— Action on the Medulla Oblongata. 



a.— The Taso-Motor Centre. 



Whilst the voluntary muscles are thus brought 

 under the influence of the poison, symptoms denoting 

 the invasion of the oblongata are rapidly developing. 

 The first of these is the deadly pallor and ashy hue of 

 the cold skin, evidently due to the blood receding from 

 the surface, a condition not unlike that obtaining in 

 extreme anaemia. As persons in this state complain 

 of an agonising feeling about the heart and of deadly 

 faintness, a paretic condition of the heart suggests 

 itself as the most obvious cause, more especially when 

 taken in conjunction with the small, frequent, and 

 compressible pulse. But though the heart muscle is 

 no doubt participating in the general paresis, the 

 condition of the surface of the body is in reality one 

 of anaemia. The blood, even at this early stage, begins 

 to accumulate in the large veins of the abdomen, which 

 expand gradually in consequence of the diminishing 



