3674 Reptiles. 



animal dead in ten minutes. It is remarkable that in the last two ex- 

 periments there was far less convulsion than in the case of the animal 

 bitten by the puff-adder. 



Fourth experiment. — On a sparrow. — A sparrow was inoculated 

 with blood taken from the right auricle of the guinea-pig dissected, 

 but it produced no perceptible effect. 



Fifth experiment. — Same rattlesnake and a rabbit. — Struck under- 

 neath the right thigh at 10 h. 4 min. 20 sees. The antidote adminis- 

 tered and applied within a minute. The right leg was immediately 

 paralysed, and it dragged. At 10 h. 7 min. 30 sees, both hind legs 

 were paralysed. Panting for breath at 10 h. 8 min. He seemed to 

 have partially recovered the use of his hind legs, and lost that of his 

 fore legs at 10 h. 11 min. We thought him dying, without convul- 

 sions, at 10 h. 12 min. 15 sees. Subsequently, the animal, after reco- 

 vering the use of his fore legs, and once more losing that of the hind 

 legs, seemed to rally ; and to give him the better chance, he was re- 

 moved from the reptile-house and laid on the grass in the sunshine, 

 but he died at 10 h. 40 m., having survived the bite just half an hour. 



Sixth experiment. — Same rattlesnake and a strong rabbit. — Struck 

 at 10 h. 30 min. 7 sees, in the ear, which immediately drooped. The 

 bite perforated the ear completely, about an inch from the base. The 

 rabbit shakes his head and ear; we place him on the floor and he runs 

 about. In ten minutes he seemed none the worse ; he was therefore 

 again put into the cage, and struck near the root of the same ear, about 

 half an inch from the right eye, at 10 h. 48 min. The remedy was 

 applied. He screamed as if from pain in about a minute, and cried a 

 second time a few seconds afterwards. Slight spasms supervened at 

 10 h. 50 min. ; he was quite dead at 10 h. 52 min. Lived just four 

 minutes. Dr. Quain dissected the animal five minutes after death, 

 and found an effusion of dark blood in the course of the wound, such 

 as described in Experiment 2. The fangs had perforated the carotid 

 canal, and the vessel there contained a coaguluna about half an inch 

 in length, which nearly filled its cavity. 



Seventh experiment. — On a sparrow. — I inoculated a sparrow on 

 the inside of the wing, near the heart, with blood from the wound 

 caused by the fangs of the rattlesnake, but without apparent effect, for 

 in fifteen minutes he seemed uninjured. This accords with Dr. Rus- 

 sell's experiment by inoculation made in India. The keeper after- 

 wards told me that one of the two sparrows died the next day, but not, 

 he thought, from the inoculation, for he found sparrows frequently die 

 in the reptile-house when untouched by the serpents. 



