xxx Abbe font an a . on 4 he 
were not ten feconds between the moment in which 1 faw the 
poifon turned back, and that of my being told that the animal was* 
dead, as in fa£l it was. I cannot fay what quantity of poifon 
was introduced into the blood ; there mud have entered a fuffi- 
cient quantity, as the animal was killed ; but had it not been 
for that circumftance, I lhould have judged, from the quan- 
tity returned back, that none at all had entered the jugular. 
The animal was fo dead, that there appeared no figns of refpi- 
ration, and the whole body was more pendent and flaccid in all 
its parts than is ufual with animals that have been long dead. 
The death of this animal followed fo clofe upon the introduction 
of the poifon, that the interval of time feemed quite infenfible : 
it appeared to take place much quicker than in the cafe of the 
poifon of the viper, introduced into the blood in the fame 
manner. 
Having repaired my fyringe, I put into it only two drops of 
the water in which I had mixed one quarter of a drop of the 
poifon diffolved in water as above. I had fcarcely introduced 
the poifon into the jugular, when the rabbit fell down as dead 
as if it had been ftruck with lightning. I do not believe that 
half a drop of the liquor in the fyringe was introduced when the 
animal fell motionlefs and dead. 
In general, from other experiments which I made afterwards* 
I think I may venture to fay, that this poifon, introduced imme- 
diately into the blood by the jugular, kills fooner, and requires 
a lefs quantity of it to kill than the poifon of the viper does. 
Death follows the introduction of the poifon into the blood fo 
fpeedily, that it prevents the ufual convulfions of the animal. 
If a fmaller quantity of the poifon be taken, we then perceive 
the ordinary convulfions and palpitations, and death does not 
happen fo fuddenly. 
It is indeed true, that the blood is not coagulated, nor fo much 
altered in its colour, as when the poifon of the viper is introduced 
into the jugular ; but death is not, therefore, more tardy, nor 
lefs certain, as both the poifons, when introduced immediately 
into the blood, kill animals in the fame manner. 
This 
