1897.] Physiology. 247 
of sulphuric, hydrochloric, or phosphoric acid (Oxalic acid is ineffect- 
ual). 
Very much larger amounts of the venom may be injected subcutane- 
ously without producing the effects that follow intravenous injections. 
In this case the author thinks that the blood acquires an immunity to 
further doses. How long this immunity may last, however, he is not 
able to say. 
The blood pressure (arterial) in the case of intravenous injections 
gradually falls until death. In the case of subcutaneous injections it 
falls for a while, then rises to near the normal and again falls until the 
death of the animal. 
With this change in the blood pressure there is a corresponding 
change in the volume of the spleen and kidneys, both increasing in vol- 
ume with the fall of blood pressure and decreasing with its rise. 
The venom lessens the power of the blood to carry CO, and decreases 
the toxic powers of the serum over micro-organisms. 
Heating to 85°C. lessens the power of the venom to destroy blood 
corpuscles and also its toxic qualities generally. This may be explained 
by the heat converting some of the proteids of the venom into an inert 
precipitate and secondly by its causing some change in their toxic power 
without, however, impairing their solubility or changing them in any 
may recognizable by chemical means. 
Upon the nervous system the venom does not, as has been recorded 
for that of other snakes, have a curare-like action, but like them it 
causes a general paralysis, beginning with the lower and passing succes- 
sively to the higher centers. Dogs poisoned with Pseudechis venom 
loose first the use of their hinder limbs. 
There is no increase of respiration followed by a decrease as has been 
The effect upon body temperature is such as to cause a rise or a fall 
in temperature according to the manner in which the venom reaches the 
blood, if this be slowly, it may cause a rise, if rapidily, a fall. As in 
the case of Crotalus venom as found by Sewall in animals more or less 
immunized by repeated small injections, a lethal dose may be followed 
by a rise in temperature. 
Among the other pathological effects may be noted that it causes 
hemorrhages in all of the organs of the body and from the mucous sur- 
