78 On the Condition of the Blood 
Are they granular cells of pneumonia? In the first place _ 
no pheumonia was found; and secondly, they are unlike 
them. 
Are they pus-cells? All observers agree in stating that 
there is considerable difficulty in distinguishing well deve- 
Joped pus-cells from the white corpuscles of the blood. The 
action of reagents upon both being nearly if not precisely 
identical. Their usual diameter is, according to Paget, 
from 5 to x9 of an inch. Virchow represents them as 
sm of aninch. Hassall ficures them = of an inch. 
Bennett, of Edinborough, makes them larger, ze¢., from 
Are they large exudation cells? No exudation was dis- 
covered anywhere, and they are also different in structure. 
What are they ? 
Their perfectly circular outline, and large nulere prove 
them to have grown without impediment, and to have, as 
evidenced by their numbers, multiplied enormously and 
rapidly ; in other words, living “ germinal” matter from 
the cobra has been thrown into the blood and grown at its 
expense. 
What is the meaning of the macula ? 
Until further opportunity occurs to me, I would ask, can 
it be possible that the germ inheriting the qualities of its 
parent is fed by the blood which tends to make it one of its 
own corpuscles, but produces instead a hybrid nucleated — 
maculated cell, except for its circular form, like a rep- 
tile’s blood-corpuscle? or is the macula a more general 
characteristic of cells than is yet known? 
Immediately after the occurrence of the accident which 
led to the foregoing observations, I endeavoured to pro- 
cure Australian snakes in order to see the effects of their 
poison on the animal frame, and, if possible, to find some 
means of counteracting it. But [I have found the winter 
too far advanced, and have been only able, although applying 
in many quarters, to procure two very young black snakes. . 
The snakes were very disinclined to bite, and my desire 
being great to examine the poison, I killed one for this 
purpose, and to my regret found very little in either gland. 
What there was was slightly acid, and consisted chiefly of 
free nuclei, having generally a translucent circular nucleolus, 
sometimes two; some of the nuclei and nucleoli were oval, 
I examined them with the ~ and -3, inch objectives. 
