248 C. J. MARTIN AND J. McGARVIE SMITH. 
This has been done in every case, so that we have a long series 
of observations showing how this percentage varies under different 
circumstances, such as previous discharge of poison, feeding, time 
of year We. 
The variation in the percentage of solids (which means variation 
in the toxic strength of the venom) is very extensive. We have 
obtained poison containing as much as 67% of solids and as little 
as 12%. These results which we hope to communicate in detail 
at some future period are interesting and important, as they show 
that one is not justified in dealing with the fresh (7.e. wet) snake 
poison as a constant factor. 
This error vitiates all the experiments of the committee ap- 
pointed to enquire into the subject of snake poison by the Medical 
Society of Victoria in 1875-6. 
Nicholson* notes variations in the proportion of solids in cobra 
venom of nearly as great a range as ours. 
The poison thus obtained is a clear straw coloured fluid of 
varying viscosity and strongly acid reaction. On drying at about 
16° C. in a desiccator it forms clear glistening scales, behaving 
just in the manner of white of egg under similar circumstances. 
It will keep for six months (probably any length of time) in this 
condition, and retains its virulence unimpaired. At the end of 
this time it dissolves up completely in a small quantity of distilled 
water or weak salt solution (1 to 107/) forming a perfectly clear 
solution. The poison though strongly acid when received direct 
from the fangs, loses its acidity by drying, so that the solution 
formed afterwards is neutral or very faintly acid. The acid is 
volatile and by drying except at low temperatures is driven off. 
In recent times the effects following the injection of snake 
poison, have been ascribed by various authors to five different 
classes of bodies, which according to these authors are present in 
venom, Viz. : 
(1) Germs. 
* Indian Snakes, Madras, 1874. 
