242 C. J. MARTIN AND J. McGARVIE SMITH. 
0-1 c. cm. of the solution (=s33> grain) and died in 90 seconds 
and 91 seconds after the withdrawal of the syringe. 
Two others received 0:05 c. cm. of the solution (= 7455 grain) 
and succumbed in 97 and 98 seconds respectively. 
Similar experiments were performed with a solution of the 
venom from the Tiger snake (Hoplocephalus curtis) prepared in 
a similar manner, so that 0:05 c. cm. equalled 43455 grain. 
The two rabbits which received 0-1 c. cm. (=sto grain) died 
in 92 and 101 seconds, and those which had 0-05 c. em. (=i340 | 
grain) in 104 and 105 seconds respectively. All four rabbits 
weighed over dibs. 
The above experiments show a marked uniformity between the 
toxic power of these two venoms. 
In the Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, for 1889, 
Dr. Sidney Martin gives a table purporting to represent the rela- 
tive toxicity of the venoms from snakes of different species and 
from different countries which appears to us to be extremely un- 
trustworthy, as there is no guarantee that the poison was procured 
in an equally pure state, nor that the method of introduction 
into the system was the same in all cases. When a snake bites, 
often twice as much saliva escapes from the mouth as venom, and 
unless this be prevented from passing into the receptacle by some 
such arrangement as was used by us, it would be dried and esti- 
mated as poison. Again, whether the poison be introduced intra- 
venously or subcutaneously makes a difference of at least a decimal 
place in the lethal dose. 
And further, the kind of animal experimented on, influences the 
result to a marked degree, rabbits being seven times as sensitive 
to Black snake poison as guinea-pigs, weight for weight. It should 
be noted too that the quotation made by Dr. Sidney Martin from 
the Victorian Medical Society’s Proceedings, refers to fresh, that 
is wet poison, whereas that from the late Mr. Vincent Richard’s 
‘Landmarks of Snake-poison Literature,” obviously refers to 
poison in a dried condition. Lastly, we have consulted the data 
