1873.] of the Poison of some Indian Venomous Snakes. 371 



it appears to kill by annihilating, in some unknown way, the source or 

 distribution of nerye-f orce. It is also an irritant ; for if applied to a 

 mucous membrane or to the conjunctiva, it soon induces violent in- 

 flammation ; absorption at the same time takes place, and symptoms of 

 poisoning are produced. It is also, to a certain extent, a septic ; for if the 

 bitten creature survive, the wound and the parts about it are apt to 

 slough and to induce septicaemia. The poison acts by absorption — that 

 is, by entering the circulation, and so reaching the nerve-centres, it pro- 

 duces, according to the quantity or intensity of the venom, either death 

 or severe local and constitutional symptoms. If it find entry by a large 

 vein, such as the femoral or jugular, life may be destroyed in a few 

 seconds. 



The blood itself is affected by the poison. 



Dr. Eayrer has not been able to detect any corpuscular changes, nor has 

 he any exact information on the chemical changes it undergoes, or may 

 have undergone ; but that it is altered there can be little doubt ; and in 

 poisoning of the lower animals, at all events by the Viperidse, its coagula- 

 bility after death is generally destroyed, whilst after death by poisoning 

 by the colubrine snakes the blood generally coagulates *. 



As the blood is the channel through which the poison acts, it IP 

 obvious that the first object should be to arrest, destroy, or prevent its 

 entry into the circulation ; or if it has already entered, to neutralize or 

 counteract its action, or to procure its elimination by the agency of the 

 natural depurating organs and their secretions, and to treat local, 

 consecutive, and constitutional symptoms by such remedial measures as 

 may be required by the patient's condition. 



Absorption takes place with extreme rapidity, so fast, indeed, that it 

 was formerly supposed, in the case of some of the more active poisons, 

 that they acted by transmission of a shock through the nervous system ; 

 and, so far as we know at present, it is not improbable that such, in some 

 instances, may be the case. But rapid as the effect of snake-bite some- 

 times is, there is no reason to believe that generally it operates on the 

 nerve-centres through any other channel than that of the vascular 

 system. The experiments of Blake, Hering, and, later, of Claude 

 Bernard show that absorption takes place with such rapidit)' as to ex- 

 plain the most rapid deaths from such cause. Blake (vide Guy's 

 ' Forensic Medicine,' 3rd edition, p. 388) found that a poison passed 

 from the jugular veins to the lungs of a dog in from four to six seconds, 

 from the jugula,r vein to the coronary arteries of the heart in seven seconds; 



* Our experiments in England have not confirmed these observations made in India. 

 The blood of animals dead from Daboia-ipoisonmg has been found to coagulate. This 

 is a point that needs much further and repeated observation, as, indeed, does the ques- 

 tion of the chemistry of the blood of animals affected by snake-poison, and we hope to 

 report further on it. 



