944 C. J. MARTIN AND J. McGARVIE SMITH. 
After Bonaparte the subject appears to have had no investiga- 
tion until about 1860, when Dr. Weir Mitchell turned his attention 
to the subject. This accomplished author is essentially the 
founder of our present knowledge on the subject, though con- 
clusions drawn at the time when animal chemistry was in its 
infancy, have very naturally had to be modified as knowledge of 
the chemistry of proteids has advanced. 
The following analysis of the venom of the-Rattle-snake was 
published by Mitchell in 1861 :* | 
(1) An albuminoid active principle (Crotalin) 
(2) An albumen (coagulable by heat) 
(3) Colouring matter 
(4) A trace of fat 
(5) Chlorides and phosphates 
The parallelism between this and the analysis of Bonaparte is 
striking. The great advance made by Mitchell was the determin- 
ation of the proteid nature of the active principle. These re- 
searches left the study of venoms in as satisfactory a position as 
could be gained with the laboratory facilities of 1843 — 1861. 
In 1861, this author published some more observations on the 
subject? and then in 1883, in conjunction with Reichert published 
a preliminary report of some very extensive researches they had 
been carrying on for some years, on the chemistry and physio- 
logical action of the poisons of the North American snakes; a 
complete account of which was published by the Smithsonian 
Institute in 1886.+ 
In these papers the authors establish the proteid nature of the 
venom of the American snakes, and ascribe poisonous properties 
* «On the treatment of Rattle-snake bites, with experimental criticisms. 
upon the various remedies now in use.”—N. Am. M. Chir. Rev. V. 269. 
+ Prelim. Report on the Venoms of Poisonous Serpents.”—Med. News, 
Philadelphia 1883. 
t “Researches upon the Venoms of Poisonous Serpents.”—Smithsonian 
Contributions to Knowledge, 1886. This paper contains an exhaustive. 
bibliography on the subject of Snake Poison up to 1885. 
