Sceva.] OO [January 18, 



twenty drops of water, and the liquid reduced by evaporation at a 

 temperature of 85° Fahr. to four drops. This was exposed to the air 

 at a temperature of 22° and completely frozen in four minutes (the 

 warmth of the porcelain vessel retarding the process slightly). The 

 poison was allowed to remain in the frozen state sixteen hours, dur- 

 ing which time the temperature fell to 8° — or 24° below the freezing 

 point. On the following day, Jan. 9tk, the poison was thawed and 

 diluted with three or four drops of water, and two drops of the liquid 

 injected with a fine pointed syringe into the pectoral muscle of a 

 pigeon about half an inch from the keel of the sternum, the point 

 of the syringe penetrating the muscle about one-eighth of an inch. 

 This part of the pigeon's body was selected in order to avoid wound- 

 ing any of the viscera or large blood vessels. The poison was in- 

 jected at 4.32' p.m. 



4.34'. A motion of the bowels. Although this almost invariably 

 occurs as the first symptom of the action of the poison in the lower 

 animals, it cannot be fully relied on in the case of birds, as it very 

 frequently occurs from fright. 



5.10'. Another motion of the bowels, followed by slight tremors 

 and convulsive movements clearly indicating the action of the poison. 

 Dr. Thomas Dwight, Jr., who was present, thought he observed in 

 the general appearance of the bird the action of the poison a few 

 minutes earlier. 



At 5.15', no further symptoms were shown. At this time I left 

 the room for about two hours and on returning a few minutes past 

 seven found the pigeon dead, its death having occurred in less than 

 two and a half hours from the time of being poisoned. 



Since making this experiment I have found that a similar one has 

 been made on the venom of the rattlesnake by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, 

 of Philadelphia. Dr. Mitchell found that neither boiling nor a putre- 

 factive change destroyed its poisonous action. These experiments 

 have also been made with the venom of the Cobra de Capello with 

 like results. 



Mr. Sceva, after reading the report of his experiment, made some 

 general remarks on the habits of the cobra and on the action of its 

 poison. He said he had been much surprised, on looking over some 

 of the works on natural history, at the erroneous statements which 

 some of them contain respecting this subject. He thought these 

 errors might be attributed in a great measure to the general dread 

 and aversion which people feel for all poisonous reptiles. Thia 



