40 



SNAKE-POISON AND ITS ACTION. 



do with a poison transferred from one living organism 

 into another one and modified in its action by the con- 

 dition of the giver and the constitution and peculi- 

 arities of the recipient quite as much probably as by 

 slight variations in its chemical composition. Accept- 

 ing the " why " of these phenomena like that ot many 

 other ones, simply as a fact not to be accounted for at 

 present, we must be content to know " how " they are 

 effected, and, what is of more immediate and paramount 

 impoi'tance to know, that we now have an antidote 

 that will deal successfully with them all, that the con- 

 vulsions and haemorrhages of the Indian viper-poison 

 and the asphyxia of that of the cobra will yield as 

 readily to strychnine, when properly and boldly applied, 

 as the coma and general paralysis following the bite of 

 the deadly tiger snake. 



