THE VENOM OF THE AUSTRALIAN BLACK SNAKE. 251 
Na,CO, to prevent putrefaction. In none of the tubes was the 
fibrin dissolved nor the serum affected. We may therefore con- 
clude that there is no reason to ascribe the effects of Black snake 
poison to any digestive action. 
(3.) Gautier stated* that he had extracted two ptomaines from 
the venom of the Cobra. Wolfendent however was unable to 
confirm this, and Prof. Walcott Gibbst who examined the venom 
of the Rattlesnake at the request of Dr. Weir Mitchell, was unable 
to discover the presence of any body of this nature. 
The possibility of the presence of ptomaines adherent to the 
proteid constituents of snake poison demands careful attention. 
In the breaking up of proteids under the digesting influence of 
micro-organisms (e.g. Anthrax bacilli) it has been shown by Dr. 
Sidney Martin,§ that alkaloids or ptomaines are frequently found 
as part-end-products in addition to albumoses. Similar results were 
obtained with tubercle bacilli by Crookshank and Herroun, || 
Hunter,** and Hankin.+7 Brieger {{ also in his monograph on 
Animal Alkaloids, has shown that a ptomaine “ pepto-toxine ” is 
formed during artificial gastric digestion. 
Accordingly we carefully examined a small quantity of poison 
by Brieger’s$§ modification of the Stas-Otto process for the separa- 
tion of alkaloids. The extract which should contain any body 
of this nature, was quite harmless when injected into the peritoneal 
cavity of a small guinea-pig. 
We therefore conclude that such bodies are absent from Black 
snake poison. 
* Bull, Acad. de Med., Paris 1881. 
+ Loc. cit. ' 
+ Smithsonian Contribution to Science, 1886. 
§ Rep. of Med. Off. to Local Govt. Board, 1889 and 1890. Brit. Med. 
Journ., March 1892. Journ. Pathol. 1892. 
|| Proc. Physiol. Soc., Feb. 1891. 
**Brit. Med. Journ. July, 1891. ++ Brit. Med. Journ., 1891. {{‘Ueber 
Ptomaine,’ Berlin, 1885. 
§§ Loe. cit. et Text Book of Chem. Physiol—Halliburton. 
