28 SNAKE-POISON AND itS ACTIOlJ. 



strychnine injections. Only a, few cases have been 

 reported as yet of blood- vomiting. In one of these the 

 haemorrhage took place soon after the bite and was so 

 considerable that it must have arisen from actual 

 rupture of vessels consequent on abdominal engorge- 

 ment and not from mere diapedesis It is very doubt- 

 ful whether the latter ever takes place here as it does 

 after viper-bite in India and elsewhere. Even the 

 death-adder, although half a viper, and producing more 

 swelling and effusion locally than any other one of our 

 snakes, is not known to have ever produced the exten- 

 sive effusions from mucous surfaces in pericardium, 

 lungs, &c., described above. More research however 

 is necessary, especially more carefully conducted 

 autopsies. Since Australia has taken the lead in this 

 hitherto so obscure department, every practitioner 

 should make it his object and special ambition to con- 

 tribute his quota towards the elucidation of the subject, 

 not only by reporting successful cases, but also the 

 post-mortem appearances in unsuccessful ones, wherever 

 it is practicable. It is not by experiments on animals 

 but by a hearty co-operation of Australian practitioners 

 that we can ever hope to supplement our knowledge on 

 this subject. 



b.— The Respiratory Centre. 



Paresis of this centre does not play as important 

 a part here as it does in India, more especially after 

 cobra-bite. The peculiar, and as yet unexplained, 

 tendency of snake-poison to act with special virulence 



