i88s.] On the Poison of Serpents. 215 
several hours. On the other hand, by a sufficient degree of 
dilution or by a reduction of the dose, they might be ren- 
dered harmless. On the faith of these observations Dr. 
Gautier argued — and as it seems to us quite legitimately — 
that snake-poison could not be a virus or figured ferment, 
owing its deadly efficacy to the presence of microbia, or 
organic germs, as is the case with the materies morhi of 
splenic fever, &c. We pointed out then that the eminent 
Brazilian physician Dr. de Lacerda had come to very dif- 
ferent conclusions. The views of the latter savant appear to 
have been endorsed by one of the chief representatives of 
French official Science — M. de Quatrefages — in a memoir 
presented to the Academy of Sciences. This paper we shall 
beg to lay before our readers, premising that, whilst Dr. de 
Lacerda has experimented chiefly with the venom of Bothrops 
jacaranda, Dr. Gautier has examined that of a closely-allied 
species, the redoubtable lance-headed serpent of Martinique, 
which some zoologists place in the genus Bothrops. 
M. de Quatrefages commences by referring to some of the 
cures effected by Dr. de Lacerda by the subcutaneous injec- 
tion of a dilute solution of potassium permanganate. He 
says — “ Among the cases recorded there are some exceed- 
ingly remarkable, where the injections have not taken place 
until eleven and twelve hours after the bite. Extreme 
swelling of the limbs, profound anxiety, and haemorrhage, 
inward or outward, all announced the approach of death. 
Yet after some injections all these symptoms have disap- 
peared, and the wounded persons have been completely 
restored in a few days. These faCts, collected in different 
parts of the Brazilian territory, and accompanied with 
minute details, seem to be beyond all doubt. They confirm 
the experiments made by Dr. de Lacerda in presence of the 
most competent judges, and with the assistance of one of 
our countrymen, Dr. Gouty, a pupil of Claude Bernard. 
“ To comprehend all the importance of the discovery due 
to Dr. de Lacerda, we must remember that in those countries 
a certain number of persons succumb every year to the bites 
of various species of serpents. In Martinique alone, with a 
population of 125,000, the annual mortality from the bite of 
the lance-headed snake is fifty, not counting those who re- 
main lame or infirm for the rest of their days. We see, 
therefore, what a service the eminent sub-direCtor of the 
Physiological Laboratory of Rio Janeiro has rendered. 
France itself may profit by this beautiful discovery. With- 
out doubt, of all our serpents, the viper alone is venomous, 
and its bite is far from being as formidable as that of its 
