146 OPHIDIANS. 
live a long time under water, in carbonic acid gas, as a reptile 
or hibernating animal, with correspondingly slow circulation 
and absorption, its chances of recovery are greater ; it is nat- 
urally more indifferent to the presence of the poison, and the 
probability of absorption from a wound is less. 
It may be said that the symptoms of snake-poisoning come 
on too soon for such changes in the blood to be produced ; but 
recollect the nearly instantaneous action of pytalin. If venom 
enter the vein, one minute will certainly suffice for its entire 
circulation through the body. 
Estimating the quantity of blood in the body at twelve 
pounds, and the contents of the left ventricle at three ounces, 
then the whole mass of the blood would be circulated by 
sixty-four heart-beats; and taking the normal beats at seventy- 
five per minute, this quantity of blood would pass through the 
heart, carrying with it the imported poison in fifty-one seconds. 
I have shown by experiments that dyes, such as magenta, 
may be absorbed from the serous cavities, peritoneum and 
pleura, and from the subcutaneous connective tissue, and trav- 
erse the circulation, be excreted by the kidneys, and ejected 
by the bladder, in less than five minutes. The experiments 
proving this fact were made upon dogs and fowls. 
Later, Drs. Macnamara and Haughton have found iodine 
pass from the tunica vaginalis testis, and to be discharged 
from the bladder in four minutes ;\ therefore in man, symp- 
toms of poisoning may certainly be possible in five minutes, 
and in birds in half that time. 
Believing then, that in the blood itself the chemical changes 
occur which have their resultants in voluntary and reflex acts 
(will and motion), and in animal heat, let us turn to the con- 
dition of our snake-bitten patient. He is usually pale, with 
a great tendency to sleep, the heart’s action is feeble, and in 
some cases a deep coma ensues, from which it is difficult to 
