Reptiles. 3675 



With this, the first series of our experiments closed, but we purpose 

 a second upon stronger animals, such as cats, dogs, and goats. 



These experiments ought to be, and, I hope, will be, considered 

 equally interesting by the philanthropist and the medical philosopher. 

 That they are not devoid of practical value, I hope to show by the fol- 

 lowing remarks. The first observation that arises is that the alleged 

 remedy proved inefficacious. It may, indeed, have had some effect 

 in the case of the rabbit that survived during half an hour. But it 

 would, nevertheless, be unsafe to reject the Simaba Cedron as an an- 

 tidote because it here failed, inasmuch as death followed so rapidly 

 that there was small opportunity for its action. It is not until it shall 

 have been tried and have failed upon stronger animals, that, in the 

 face of the experience of the Indians in hot climates, it should be re- 

 pudiated. It is remarkable that the poison of the rattlesnake and of 

 the puff-adder operated in a different manner. There was very little 

 convulsion in the animals bitten by the former ; they seemed to have 

 their vital powers paralysed at once, to sink into a comatose state, and 

 die : while the spasms and convulsions following the bite of the puff- 

 adder were violent, and increased in force and frequency until death 

 ensued. The fourth bite of the same rattlesnake caused death in four 

 minutes. 



Some interesting questions arise on these experiments. What is 

 the action of this deadly poison ? Is it through the blood or the ner- 

 vous system ? There are presumptions both ways. The probability 

 that it acts through the blood, reposes on the observed fact of disco- 

 louration around the wound, and the coagulum found in the carotid 

 artery, as described in Experiment 6. On the other hand, the pre- 

 sumption that it operates directly on the nervous system, is strength- 

 ened by the following observations : — 1. By the extreme rapidity of 

 death — the animal in Experiment 2 seeming to die instantaneously ; 

 2. By the observed effect of immediate paralysis of the limb nearest 

 to the wound, followed by paralysis of the corresponding limb, though 

 death did not immediately follow (Experiment 4), and the drooping 

 of the ear of the rabbit (in Experiment 6) simultaneously, as it ap- 

 peared to us, with the bite. May not the poison act both through 

 the circulation and the nervous system ? For my own part, I think 

 it does, and that any remedy, to be efficacious, must operate on both. 



One word in conclusion respecting the ill-fated keeper, Gurling. 

 He it was who assisted at the experiments here narrated. His enthu- 

 siasm for his occupation was (not merely on that occasion, when it 

 was noticed by those present, but on many others) very conspicuous 



