228 
The Lessons of the Lamson Case . 
[April, 
Now, differences in the action of poisons upon different 
species do occur, but they are most decidedly the exception, 
especially if we confine ourselves to vertebrates, to warm- 
blooded creatures, and still more to mammals. Many of the 
supposed anomalies and exceptions disappear on close ex- 
amination. The poison of the cobra has proved fatal to 
every animal upon which it has been fairly tried. The 
mungus and the secretary hawk owe their success in giving 
battle to the death-snakes, not to any immunity from serpent 
poison, but to their adroitness in evading the bite. Swine 
are said to suffer little from the bite of the rattlesnake. But 
in fadt the venom loses itself in the dense layer of cellular 
tissue loaded with fat, which underlies the skin, and rarely 
penetrates into a vein. We have often seen the hedgehog 
kill a viper, regardless of its bites. But these bites struck 
merely the cartilaginous mass of Hoggie’s snout, and the 
poison doubtless failed to enter the circulation. 
Dr. James Blake,* as the result of a course of experimen- 
tation extending over forty years, records the faft that the 
action of forty-one mineral poisons introduced into the blood 
was the same in all the species operated upon. Let us, 
however, suppose that certain poisons may, whilst others may 
not, produce the same symptoms in man and in some of the 
lower animals. We have then the two cases : — (a.) The 
symptoms in man and in, say, a rabbit or a mouse are identi- 
cal. In this case there is no difficulty; the experiments will 
be perfectly trustworthy. ( b .) The symptoms in man and 
in the rabbit are different. Here, also, there is no difficulty 
provided the symptoms in each case are perfectly known. 
Let us suppose that a man has died, apparently from a dose 
of aconitine, that is to say, the symptoms produced are those 
which aconitine is known to excite in human subjects. 
We extract from the contents of the stomach an alkaloid. 
We administer this alkaloid to a rabbit, and we find it dies 
with the symptoms which aconitine produces in rabbits. 
The results are therefore in either case trustworthy provided 
that the physiological effects of the poison in question are 
duly known. Hence the argument which the Lord Chief 
Justice is said to have used, instead of showing the useless- 
ness of experimentation upon animals, proves its necessity. 
* Journal of Science, vol. iii. (3rd series), p. 319. 
