250 C. J. MARTIN AND J. MCGARVIE SMITH. 
with bacteria, and from the negative results of our observations. 
we are ina position to state—that snake poison as discharged 
from the fangs does not under normal circumstances contain any 
micro-organisms. 
(2.) The second suggestion that the poison contains a ferment 
analogous to a digestive ferment has suggested itself to many, owing 
no doubt to the fact that the venom gland is the homologue of the 
parotid salivary gland. Prof. Halford* stated as his theory of 
the action of snake poison that it digested or dissolved the 
fibrinous elements in the blood and so prevented it from clotting, 
and he considered all other symptoms as secondary to this primary 
effect on the blood. i 
In 1881 we find Lacerda, who had in the mean time wearied of 
his former hypothesis, advancing a similar view. He states} that 
the poison is a digestive Juice comparable to pancreatic secretion 
but much stronger. 
Recently too, some observations appeared in one of our daily 
papers to the effect that snake poison was capable of digesting 
pieces of flesh, and hard boiled egg. ‘To ascertain whether our 
snake poison really possessed any such digestive activity, we per- 
formed the following experiments :— 
Hight test-tubes were taken and divided into two groups. Four 
were half filled with 0-2°/ H.CL, and the remaining four with 17% 
Na, CO, solution, in order to test whether the poison might be 
capable of digesting in an acid or alkaline medium. To two tubes 
in each group was added a small piece of clean, fresh fibrin, and 
to the other two in each group an addition of 1 c.c. of dog’s serum 
was made. Thus we had four pairs of tubes, the pairs being 
exactly alike in every respect. ‘To one tube in each pair a small 
quantity of snake poison was added and the whole eight tubes 
were placed in an incubator at 40° C. for forty-eight hours, a 
small crystal of thymol having been added to those containing 
* Brit. Med. Journ. 1867, 11. 
+ Compt. Rend. Acad. Sc., Paris, xcrt1. 
