THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF SNAKE-VENOMS 171 



limbs have a difficulty in supporting it. It is soon attacked by 

 nausea, vomiting and dyspnoea ; it rests its head upon the ground, 

 raises it, trying to get breath, and carries its hand to its mouth as 

 if in order to pluck a foreign body from its throat. It totters upon 

 its limbs, and lies down upon its side with its face against the 

 ground. Ptosis increases, and complete asphyxia soon supervenes. 

 The heart continues to beat for some time after respiration has 

 ceased, and then stops in diastole. 



Cadaveric rigidity very rapidly sets in, and persists for a long 

 time, even after putrefaction has commenced. During the last 

 moments of life the pupil remains very sensitive ; the animal 

 appears to retain unimpaired its sense of hearing and sensibility 

 to pain. The electric excitability of the muscles of the face per- 

 sists, but that of those of the limbs and body almost entirely 

 disappears. The application of volta-faradic currents from the 

 nape to the diaphragm produces no respiratory movement when 

 asphyxia begins to manifest itself. The sphincters of the bladder 

 and anus relax after a few spasms, which, in case of males, fre- 

 quently provoke the .ejaculation of semen ; the urine and faeces 

 immediately escape. 



The autopsy reveals slight hsemorrhagic oedema at the point of 

 inoculation, and hypersemia of all the viscera, especially of the liver 

 and spleen, with, very frequently, small hsemorrhagic patches on 

 the surface of these organs, and on that of the intestine and 

 kidneys. The serous membranes, especially the meninges, endo- 

 cardium, pleurae, and peritoneum, exhibit ecchymoses ; the lungs 

 are besprinkled with small infarcts, the more numerous the slower 

 the intoxication. The blood remains fluid and laccate. 



In poisoning by the venoms of Vipeeid^, the haemorrhagic 

 phenomena appear at the outset, and are more intense. Death is 

 always preceded by a period of asphyxia, indicating that the bulbar 

 nuclei of the pneumogastric nerve have become affected. At the 

 autopsy, however, the blood, instead of remaining fluid, is always 



