738 The Ptomaines and the Snake Poisons . [December, 
substances which Dr. Gautier has tried without success are 
tannin, ferric chloride, nitrate of silver, a variety of essential 
oils, aldehyds, alcohols, phenols, and ethers, Ammonia 
delayed death a little, without otherwise affecting the result. 
A small quantity of dilute caustic potassa or soda was found 
successful. 
This result is the more interesting as it is completely in 
harmony with that obtained by Dr. de Lacerda, in his expe- 
riments on the venom of Bothrops jacaranda. He injected 
into a vein of the animal from 2 to 3 c.c. of a solution of 
potassium permanganate, containing 1 per cent of the solid 
salt. Every chemist will see that the permanganate would 
be rapidly decomposed, and that caustic potassa would be 
formed. This injection was made upon animals which had 
received a dose of the poison, and which were already mani- 
festing its characteristic symptoms, such as a great dilata- 
tion of the pupils, irregular action of the heart, &c. Yet in 
a few minutes after the injection of the remedy these 
symptoms disappeared, and there remained merely a general 
prostration, which did not last longer than a quarter of an 
hour. In blank experiments made upon other dogs, the 
poison being injected without being followed by the antidote, 
death invariably followed. Both Dr. de Lacerda and Dr. 
Gautier operated in such a manner as to exclude all sources 
of uncertainty. If we cause an animal to be bitten by a 
serpent question may arise as to whether the poison-gland 
might not for the time being have been exhausted, and, if 
not, whether the poison has been really introduced into the 
tissues of the subject. But both these experimentalists col- 
lected the venom of the snakes, and injected it into the 
subjects in exactly known quantities, so that no doubt can 
exist. 
A very curious result is that the poison becomes much 
more aCtive if previously digested with gastric juice at tem- 
peratures at from 20° to 39 0 C. (68° to 102° F.). On the 
other hand, the bile seems in all probability to have the 
power of destroying, or at least of delaying, the efficacy of 
snake-poisons. Popular tradition, in many countries, asserts 
that the gall of every poisonous animal is a remedy against 
its bite. We may now remove this belief from the region of 
superstitions to that of established faCts, with this only 
reservation, that the gall of one animal is not more especially 
efficacious than that of another. 
Dr. Gautier, after having thus established that the 
ptomaines, or substances closely analogous, are normal pro- 
ducts of all animals, and after tracing them in the venom of 
