192 C. J. MARTIN. 
obtained a record, occurred in thirty minutes after the in 
of the bite. The patient was an adult, and post mortem exa 
ation revealed decolourised (ante mortem) clots in the 
ventricle with a fluid condition of the blood generally. In 
case it would appear that death was directly due to intrava 
clotting, and it is possible that thrombosis in smaller areas of 
circulation may be responsible for some of the symptoms W 
occasionally occur. 
The fact that after death from poisoning in man the blood i 
almost invariably fluid, together with the frequent occurrence 0 
hemoglobinuria in severe cases, shows that the venom pro 
similar effects on human blood as on the blood of the lower 
animals; and though these blood changes are not so obvious 
the human subject as in the dog, this fact is owing partly to the 
relatively smaller doses inoculated, and partly to the lesser sens — 
tiveness of the blood of man to the action of the venom. 
When small animals, such as birds, rats, mice, and frogs, 
bitten by Pseudechis, they run about for a period varying from® 
few seconds to two or three minutes: their breathing 
suddenly becomes dyspneeic, and convulsions and death speedily. 
follow. If, just before death they be withdrawn from the cag 
and opened, the whole venous system and right heart will ? 
found full of clot. ~ 
The injection of a virus which occasions a sudden arrest of t 
circulation is one of the means acquired by this reptile for s¢ 
its prey. It would be hard to imagine a quicker or more 
method. After a small animal has been bitten by 4 snake, 
latter would appear to recognise that it will not have long 
for its meal. During the interval which precedes the 4 
the bird or mouse, the snake carefully watches it, and as ’ 
the little animal is prostrate, proceeds, if hungry, to swallow 
It is possible that the instances when an agitated bist of 
been seen to “flutter from a bough, almost into the mouth - 
snake,” which instances have frequently been mentioned 
proof of the reptile’s power of fascination, may more correctly 
ut 
