PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL AGENTS UPON BLOOD. 
701 
rior mediastinum, and into the tissue of the pericardium, but no effusion into the peri- 
cardium itself. There were extravasations along all the great veins, into the cellular 
tissue of the pancreas, throughout the diaphragm, beneath the peritoneum, and all over 
the abdomen. The interior of the latter, indeed, looked exactly as if it had been 
sprinkled over with blood. A similar condition also existed in the subcutaneous 
cellular tissue. In fact, had the history of the case not been known, it would have 
been supposed that the animal had laboured under a severe form of purpura hsemor- 
rhagica. 
In the neighbourhood of the wounds there was great swelling, as well as an extrava- 
sation of brownish putrid looking blood. Everything pointed to blood poisoning. 
The state of the spleen merits special attention. It was of a dark bluish olive tint ; 
quite peculiar. I have never met with a similar hue in any other case of poisoning. 
On exposure to the air the blood became arterialized, and the organ then lost the 
strange appearance. The muscles were darker than usual. In the course of a few 
hours they passed into a state of rigor mortis, which was quite distinct seventeen hours 
after death. The brain was very anaemic, and showed no signs of extravasation. 
In the course of a few weeks after this experiment was made three of the puff adders 
died and were sent to me for examination. They were in exceedingly good condition, 
and beyond having fatty livers there was no apparent disease. On removing the poison 
from their poison bags and allowing it slowly to evaporate on a glass slide, beautiful 
crystals were observed to form in it similar to the specimens represented in the accom- 
panying figure. 
Fig. 2. 
Crystals from puff-adder poison. 
This crystalline body seems to be peculiar to this species of snake, as I failed to 
obtain it from the common adder, as well as from two specimens of Cobra, one from 
Morocco, and one from Egypt. 
