24 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



and were seldom molested even if caged with six or eight large ones. 

 Mice also lived on terms of confiding intimacy, sitting on the heads of 

 the snakes and running over their coils, apparently unconscious of 

 danger. Larger animals were not so safe in this, especially if they 

 moved rapidly. All the animals frequently manifested an evident 

 curiosity which prompted them to approach the snake, but this was 

 sometimes reproved by a blow, particularly when a dog indulged his 

 inquisitiveness by approaching his nose too close in the act of smelling. 

 In a state of rest no odor is observed from the snake ; but when it is 

 roughly disturbed and induced to throw itself into contortions, a thin 

 stream of yellow or dark brown fluid is ejected, the odor of which is 

 extremely disagreeable. 



The author next describes, from his own dissections, the anatomy of 

 the parts connected with the secretion and expulsion of the venom. 

 He also gives a full and complete account of the part played by the 

 various muscles in the act of inflicting a wound. "When preparing to 

 strike, the snake throws his body into a coil, and by a violent contrac- 

 tion of the muscles which lie on the convexity of the bends, a portion 

 of the body is immediately straightened and the head thrown forward 

 in a direct line to a distance not exceeding one half of its length. 

 The hooked fangs are made to enter the flesh of the victim and retained 

 there until the venom is injected by a series of muscular contractions 

 minutely detailed in the description. From this it appears that the 

 animal may sometimes fail to inflict injury when seeming to do so. 

 A knowledge of these facts is essential to a proper study of antidotes 

 for the bite of the rattlesnake. 



The venom is yellow, acid, glutinous, and of a specific gravity of 

 104. It is devoid of taste, smell, and acridity ; begins to coagulate at 

 140° Fah., and is soluble in water. It consists, first, of an albuminoid 

 substance, which is coagulable by pure alcohol, but not by a heat of 

 212° Fah. This material is the poisonous element, and receives from 

 the author the name of crotaline ; second,, of an albuminoid compound, 

 coagulable both by heat and by alcohol, and not poisonous ; third, a 

 yellow coloring matter and an undetermined substance, both soluble in 

 alcohol ; fourth, a trace of fatty matter and of free acid ; fifth, saline 

 bodies, chlorine, and phosphates. 



The venom gland presents some anatomical analogy to that in which 

 the saliva of other animals is formed ; but there is an entire want of 

 physiological resemblance between the venom and the saliva. It was 

 found that no temperature from zero to 212° Fah. destroyed the pois- 

 onous property of the venom, which also remained unaltered when it 



