SNAKE-POISON LITERATURE. 157 



from the pen of Dr. R. Norris Wolfenden, late 

 lecturer on physiology at the Charing-Oross 

 Hospital, London. 



After paying a well-merited compliment to Dr. 

 Wall, Dr. Wolfenden says, " Weir Mitchell and 

 Reichart, in America, have for some time past 

 been engaged in investigating this subject (of the 

 chemistry of snake-poisons), and they have ex- 

 amined the venom of a number of snakes, chiefly 

 American. They are now completing their in- 

 vestigations, which will shortly be published by 

 the Smithsonian Institute. One or two papers 

 have appeared in America, already, from their pen. 

 Though I have been trying for a considerable 

 time to get these papers, I have hitherto been 

 unsuccessful, and I am consequently in ignorance 

 of the scope and character of their investiga- 

 tions. I think it right to say this before men- 

 tioning my own exptoments, because it gives 

 to my work that independent character that it 

 properly possesses. It is only since I began my 

 investigations into these animal poisons, that I 

 have become acquainted with Weir Mitchell and 

 Reichart's work, through a short contribution made 

 to the Lancet of last year, in which the former 

 gentleman stated some results of their joint work. 



