SNAKE-POISON LITERATURE. 131 



are questions extremely difficult to account for 

 or explain. We can ouly state the fact that in 

 the one case coagulation occurs speedily, and in 

 the other, this coagulation is retarded or alto- 

 gether prevented by some cause at present 

 unknown. I gave it as my opinion that the 

 larger the quantity of the poison absorbed the 

 nearer to fluidity will the blood be found after 

 death ; that is to say, the fluidity of the blood 

 is entirely dependent upon, and is in direct pro- 

 portion to, the amount of the poison taken into 

 the circulation. The fact of the blood remaining 

 fluid in the case of man being bitten by a cobra 

 and coagulating in the case of an effective cobra- 

 bite in the lower animals, can probably be ac- 

 counted for in this way. The poison is, no doubt, 

 absorbed in the human subject in a large quanti- 

 ty before death supervenes, consequently the 

 proportion of poison to blood is greater than in 

 the lower animals. Whether this be the true 

 solution of the matter, I, of course, cannot posi- 

 tively assert, but, at any rate, it appears to me 

 to be a rational explanation of the problem. 



In 1883 Dr. Wall published the results of his Waii'sinTes- 



... J tigations. 



investigations, which I think were commenced 

 in 1875, and his contribution to the literature 



