144 THE LAND-MARKS OF 



Ldcerda die- Jq 1872 Lacerda announced that he had dis- 



covera figured 



ferments ill covercd " fisTired ferments in the venom of 



tno venom. o 



serpents. He placed a drop of rattlesnake- 

 venom under the microscope, and saw the produc- 

 tion of spores take place. The spores increased 

 by scission and by internal nuclei. This has not 

 been confirmed by further experiments." On 

 this subject, however, Dr. de Lacerda writes to 

 Sir Joseph Fayrer, as President of the Medical 

 Society," I beg leave to protest against an opinion 

 attributed to me by some of your colleagues, but 

 which I have never sustained. I refer to the 

 opinion that attributes to Bacteria the effects of 

 the poison. I have weighty reasons for consider- 

 ing such an hypothesis is entirely false. I re- 

 cognized, indeed, by means of repeated and 

 careful observations, that the venom contains mi- 

 crococcus in great numbers, and I made a commu- 

 nication on this subject some three years ago to 

 the Academy of Sciences of Paris. These cor- 

 puscles, however, exist in the venom in an acci- 

 dental manner, as also in the human saliva, and 

 play no important part in the effects of the poison.* 



* Wolfenden says : " The bacterial forms, which are 

 present in such large numbers in cobra-venom, I do not 

 think have anything to do with its activity." 



