SNAKE-POISON LITERATURE. 



145 



This last acts as a chemical agent, producing a 

 rapid alteration in the molecular composition of 

 the albumenia, which enters into the formation 

 of almost all animal tissues. On the blood, 

 given certain conditions, its effects are very rapid, 

 almost instantaneous ; the same happens with 

 the nervous and other elements, whose functions 

 are disturbed immediately that the venom comes 

 in contact with them. Now, such immediate 

 action can never be attributed to bacteria. You 

 see, therefore, that this unsustainable theory 

 cannot be invoked in endeavouring to explain the 

 neutralising effects of permanganate of potash." 



As regards the effect of the poison on the 

 blood, Lacerda is said to have found that — " The 

 blood of a poisoned animal presented the follow- 

 ing phenomena : the red corpuscles began by 

 presenting little shining points, which increased 

 until the globule broke down, and was replaced 

 by numerous ovoid corpuscles, very brilliant, and 

 possessed of oscillatory movements.* Theblood ob- 

 tained from animals which had died from serpent- 

 venom, when injected into others hypodermically, 

 invariably produced death in a few hours." 



Effects of 



enake-poiaon 



upon the blood, 



according to 



Lacerda. 



Vide Wolfenden's observations on the same subject. 



