76 THE LAND-MARKS OF 



Fontana theory, that in the event of the poison being in- 



wrongly con- . i t i • i ■ • n i 



eludes that the lected directlv into a muscle, it is never latal. 



conjunctiva 



does not The experiments he cites to prove this are full 



absorb venom. ^ i 



of fallacies. Fontana made several experiments 

 on various parts of the body, and came to the 

 mistaken opinion that the conjunctiva does not 

 absorb the poison. Sir J. Fayrer has demonstrat- 

 ed, and I have also observed, that the poison 

 is not only absorbed, but is frequently fatal. 

 He took a great deal of trouble to prove that 

 Dispute as to the venom of the Viper was neutral. Mead 



the acidity of 



the venom, first, and Dr. James, Cantor, Laidlay^ and Dr. 

 Harlan subsequently, asserted that the poison 

 was acid : Fontana, Russell, and Schlegel, on 

 the contrary, declared it was neutral. The fact 

 is, as I have found by numerous experiments, 

 thait the fresh poisen is acid, and that which has 

 been kept for a few hours is usually neutral. 



n ... , Although the measures taken by Fontana to 



Quantity of o */ - 



"""^oZ ute. "■* ascertain the quantity of poison that must be 

 injected to kill, were clumsy, owing to the want 

 of appliances, the results obtained by him pretty 

 nearly correspond with those obtained by me. 

 His deductions, however, are somewhat wide 

 of the mark. He found that the thousandth part 

 of a grain of viper's venom would kill a sparrow, 



