84 On the Condition of the Blood 
Three hours after the bite blood-spitting occurred. Soon 
after cupping was resorted to, and seven or eight ounces of 
blood drawn off, which remained perfectly fluid. Hight 
hours after the extremities were cold and corpse like. This 
man ultimately recovered, the medicine being chloroform, 
arrack, and camphor. 
Such being the facts preceding and following death from 
snake-poison, let us see what problems we have to solve :— 
The body is menus heat. 
The blood is minus oxygen. 
Ditto ditto fibrine. 
Ditto plus foreign cells. 
Ist. The body is minus heat. Let it be remembered that 
in death from starvation and in lingering diseases, the tem- 
perature of the body is kept up at the expense of the tissues, 
even ofthe nitrogenous. In snake-poisoning the bitten man or 
dog is breathing ; oxygen is absorbed, combustion occurs, but 
where is the heat ? Combustion does not take place in the 
tissues, as 1s evidenced by the general coldness; the red 
corpuscles do not convey the oxygen, as is shown 
by the state of the blood, for, as in cholera, the 
blood is dark even as it flows through the arteries, 
and becomes red on exposure to the air. Combustion 
occurring, the heat that should result is rendered latent, 
or rather is converted into motion ; the molecular motion 
necessary for the aggregation of the billions of particles 
constituting the new cell growth. Ifthis view of the loss of 
heat be correct, then after death, when oxygen no longer has 
access, and that contarned vn the blood is used wp, the mole- 
cular forces being arrested, the heat should be again rendered 
up to the now lifeless body. 
I have not as yet had a fair opportunity of making the 
observation, but ariseof temperature after death from cholera, 
yellow fever, &., of seven and of even nine degrees, has been 
observed, an amount of heat requiring for its production 
molecular energy or chemical action sufficient, if converted 
into mechanical force, to raise many tons weight several feet 
from the ground, or to raise the lifeless corpse higher than 
our highest building. Tyndall, when speaking of the atoms 
of water, calls them “giants in disguise.” “The force of 
gravity almost vanishes in comparison with molecular 
forces;” the pull of the earth upon a pound weight as a 
mass, is as nothing compared with the mutual pull of its 
own molecules.” . 
