The Action of the Venom of Echis carinatus. 49] 
forming a large part of its apex. These fibres become more conspicuous 
in the longer leaves. In some types the thin-walled (phloem) tissue of the 
bundle is much reduced, or even absent. The melasmatic tissue also varies 
considerably in amount. Some of these longer leaves were probably 
identical with C. grandis (Sternb.), others with C. equcsetiformis (Schloth.). 
They are characterised by a more compact structure with smaller and fewer 
intercellular spaces. 
The structure of the smaller leaves probably indicates that they grew in 
a moist situation, or where the atmosphere was humid. The larger leaves 
are more xeromorphic in character. The results obtained from this work 
indicate that the Calamites were in all probability truly microphyllous. 
The Action of the Venom of Echis carinatus. 
By Sir Tuomas R. Fraser, M.D., LL.D., Sc.D., F.RS., Professor of Materia 
Medica, University of Edinburgh; and James A. Gunny, M.A., M.D., 
D.S8c., Assistant in the Materia Medica Department, University of 
Edinburgh. 
(Received January 27,—Read March 16, 1911.) 
(From the Pharmacology Laboratory of the University of Edinburgh.) 
(Abstract.) 
The venom used consisted of the liquid venom, which had been rapidly 
dried immediately after it had been taken from living serpents in India by 
the process of “milking.” Its minimum lethal dose, by subcutaneous 
injection, per kilogramme, was found to be for the frog, 0009 gramme ; for 
the rabbit, 0°0009 grm.; for the guinea-pig, 0°001 grm.; for the rat, 
0:00075 grm.; for the cat, 0°008 grm.; for the pigeon, 0:004 grm.; and, by 
intramuscular injection, for the pigeon, 0°001 grm. 
In the case of all these animals, the cardinal symptoms, in order of time 
and of prominence, are hemorrhages occurring locally and distally, feebleness 
of the circulation and anemia, arrest of respiration and loss of reflex excita- 
bility, and arrest of the heart in diastole. 
No evidence could be obtained, either in cold- or warm-blooded animals, of 
a direct action of the venom on the brain or spinal cord. At a time when 
there occurs definite impairment of the functions of the central nervous 
system, this can adequately be accounted for by the coincident or 
