SNAKE-POISON LITERATURE. 79 



action on tlie nerves, and that, when it is intro- 

 duced into the blood, it kills an animal in a few 

 instants. It is not that in effect the irritability- 

 is not diminished in the animal that has been 

 bit, and that it is not even destroyed in a little 

 time, but this is rather an effect than a cause, 

 and is a consequence of the change caused in 

 the blood by the venom rather than an effect of 

 the venom on the muscular fibres." 



There is an undoubted change in the blood ECfectaof 



. 1-111 1 viper venom 



(if only mechanical by the presence of the on the wood. 

 venom), but this change is certainly not sponta- 

 neous coagulation. On the contrary, the blood 

 is generally found fluid.* And although the 

 venom may not act on an exposed sciatic nerve, 

 because it is not capable of absorbing the position, 

 still it is quite different when the fluid on 

 which this nerve depends for its vitality, is radi- 

 cally altered. Moreover, Fontana's experiments 

 on the spinal cord seem to indicate that the 

 poison certainly has some direct action on the 

 nerve-centres, and from experiments made by 

 Fayrer and Brunton, they were of opinion 

 that, on the one hand, the poison acts through 

 the blood on the great nerve-centres, peripheries, 

 * This subject is dealt with more fully further on, 



