PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF VENOM OF BLACK SNAKE. 205 
the capillaries. A minute fragment of the poison was then placed 
near to that portion of the mesentery in the field of the microscope. 
| 
. 
' 
7 
i 
at 
In a few moments without any previous clouding of the field, or 
stasis, small hemorrhages appeared. These invariably occurred 
first in those positions where the hydrostatic pressure was greatest, 
viz., from the wall of the capillary near to its origin from an 
arteriole, and where these capillaries branched or joined one 
another at right angles. These tiny hemorrhages increased in 
number and extent until the whole field was one mass of corpuscles, 
These appearances are very characteristic and altogether distinct 
from the escape of corpuscles in diapedesis, and I think there is 
no doubt that the venom first damages the capillary wall, and 
that the pressure within causes an actual solution of continuity, 
the blood escaping through this rupture. 
One of the prominent symptoms in animals, after the intraven- 
ous injection of a small dose of venom (i.e, so small that the 
animal may live a sufficiently long time, for the full development 
of the symptoms), is the occurrence of extensive hemorrhages. I 
have often seen more than half the substance of the lungs solid 
from hemorrhage into the alveoli and inter-alveolar tissue. If 
such an affected lung have its blood vessel washed out with saline 
solution immediately after removal from the body and be then 
injected with some colouring matter such as indigo-carmine, the 
fluid injected will not enter the hemorrhagic portions of the organ 
to any extent, so that it is probable that thrombosis in the small 
_ branches of the pulmonary artery plays some part in these lung ~ 
hemorrhages. Silbermann! has described an analogous condition 
m the lungs after intravenous injection of various corpuscle 
destroying agents. Ragotzi,? using the same method as Silbermann, 
found small thrombosed areas in the lungs of animals poisoned by 
cobra venom. 
Hemorrhages of greater or less extent are nearly always to be 
found in the kidneys, liver, and the walls of the alimentary canal, 
1 Ueber das Auftre r} ‘ P LEE De : ch 
Arsen treten multipler intravitaler Blutgerinnungen nac 
Y Loe posPhor, und einige Blutgifte.—** Virch. Arch.” Bd. 117, 1889. 
cit, 
