XXIV 
Abbe fontana on the 
I performed the fame experiments on four other pigeons, to 
all of which I applied the bandage in two minutes. Ten hours 
after they were all living ; I then took off the bandage, after 
which three of them died, and the fourth recovered perfectly . 
I again repeated the fame experiments in like manner on other 
four pigeons, but left the bandage on thirty hours : only one of 
them died, and that was not till two days after, and certainly 
from the effedt of the bandage being too tight, which had pro- 
duced a gangrene in the mufcles. Thefe fame experiments I 
have alfo repeated on much younger pigeons, whofe legs may 
be cut off below their thighs without their dying. None of 
thofe died whofe legs were cut off two minutes after they were 
poifoned ; and only two out of ten died of thofe whofe legs were 
cut off after three minutes. Fewer pigeons died by this method 
than by the bandage, when they were both applied after equal 
times. Thereafonofthisis, that the amputation is not attended 
with death or any remarkable diforder in the animals, whereas 
the bandage often produces the gangrene in the parts wounded 
by the arrows, and the pigeons frequently die of the gangrene. 
I made alfo the fame experiments on feme fmall Guinea-pigs, 
and on many young rabbits, fometimes cutting off the part, and 
fometimes applying the bandage. The refults were in general 
fimilar to thofe obferved in the pigeons, although not quite fo 
regular or certain. 
In general I found, that it required a certain time for the 
American poifon to communicate itfelf to animals, that this 
time is much greater than that which the poifon of the viper 
requires to communicate itfelf, and that the effedls of the Ame- 
rican poifon on animals are more vague and more various ; and 
that, finally, animals may be cured of the effedls of both thefe 
poifons by cutting away the part in time, when it can be done 
without endangering the life of the animal by the operation 
itfelf. 
In the courfe of my experiments on the poifon of the viper, I 
found that it is not poifonous to all animals ; and that there are 
feme cold-blooded animals to whom it is quite innocent. I was 
curious 
