214 
[April, 
On the Poison of Serpents . 
carrion and the next upon our food or our persons, and may 
thus convey to us some deadly virus. In all such cases the 
good and the evil should be carefully weighed, and no at- 
tempts at general and systematic destruction should be made 
till the evil has been found to preponderate. 
There is another lesson to be learnt from this book, of 
especial moment in these hysterical times, though not needed 
in former days. Nature gives us merely the option of 
destroying or being destroyed. A general renunciation of 
animal food, as recommended by the Vegetarians, and it 
seems by the “ Occultists,” would not exempt us from the 
necessity of constantly taking animal life. The farmer and 
the gardener kill, and must kill, a far greater number of 
creatures than does the butcher, the sportsman, or the fisher- 
man. It is true that when inseCts, snails, and others of 
the lower animals are crushed, we do not see a red liquor 
emitted, and we may therefore flatter ourselves with the 
notion that we are not shedding blood, — a plea that reminds 
us of the Holy Inquisition, who, when sentencing a man to 
the stake, declared — “ Ut qmm clementissime et citra sanguinis 
effusionem puniretur.” But if man is not justified in putting 
to death sheep and oxen for food, neither is he at liberty to 
kill wireworms, cockchaffers, and the like, for the same 
ultimate end. 
Miss Ormerod’s work must be pronounced a most valuable 
contribution to the literature of scientific husbandry, and 
will, we hope, convince men of the world of the practical 
importance of entomological science. 
V. ON THE POISON OF SERPENTS. 
S FEW months ago (“ Journal of Science,” 1881, p. 
734) we gave a summary of the researches of Prof. 
Selmi and Dr. Gautier on a newly-discovered class 
of animal poisons. These compounds, the so-called pto- 
maines, were found to agree in all their essential properties 
with the venom of serpents. Both appeared to be definite 
chemical “ individuals,” capable of crystallisation, retaining 
their fatal properties after boiling, acidulation, repeated fil- 
trations, desiccation, and even heating up to 257 0 F. for 
