431 
ON SNAKE POISONS. 
BY MR. FRANK BUCKLAND. 
The systematic way in which Mr. Frank Buckland sets to work to investigate 
any scientific point of interest or uncertainty in natural history is most refreshing. 
In the last number of ‘ Land and Water,’ he describes some of his experiences bear¬ 
ing upon the matter of the poison of the cobra. He first of all relates his know¬ 
ledge of vipers. Being anxious some years ago to make the acquaintance of a 
living specimen of the then new British snake (Coronella Icevis ), he says, “I en¬ 
gaged a professional viper-catcher, one White, to collect for me. I sent him down 
to the New Forest with orders to catch every living snake he saw, the common ringed 
snake (Coluber natrix ) excepted. In four days he returned with a bag, and told me 
he had had capital sport. We went into an empty barrack-room, and standing on a 
chair I unloosed the top of White’s bag, and shot its contents on to the floor. The 
slippery reptiles came tumbling out, first singly and then in pairs, and at last the main 
body, coiled and twisted together into a solid mass, like Medusa’s chignon, and in half 
a minute I had on the floor about fifteen vipers and two coronellas, crawling about in 
all directions, and looking as savage as vipers can look. The first thing I did was to 
pick up the coronellas, and put them carefully away; and then we had to catch all the 
vipers again, and White gave me a lesson in the noble art of viper-catching.” Having 
caught one of the beasts, Mr. Buckland noticed that, “ held in the grasp of the 4 profes¬ 
sional,’ his mouth was wide open, and his tiny glass-like and needle-pointed fangs were 
at ‘full-cock,’ like the lock of a shot gun. I then tickled his nose with a feather, and 
immediately learned something I did not know before. My irate friend moved his fangs 
alternately, first one becoming erect and then the other, and this in quick succession, 
just like a man sparring at the commencement of a fight; he never moved them both 
simultaneously, and no poison came out of the fangs. I then got a glass slide out of 
the microscope, and placed it in the viper’s mouth. In an instant both fangs struck 
down upon it, and were immediately retracted parallel with the gum—their normal 
position when at rest. The fangs struck the glass with the quickness of a bee’s sting, 
and seemed to attempt to fasten on it with a spiteful earnestness. Upon taking away 
the glass from between the viper’s jaws, I was delighted to observe two drops of perfectly 
clear, translucent fluid resting upon it, each drop corresponding to the place where the 
tooth had struck. I at once placed these drops under the microscope, and then saw a 
wondrous sight. After a second or two, on a sudden, a crystal-like fibre shot across the 
field of vision, and then another and another, these slender lines crossing each other at 
various angles, reminding me of the general appearance of an aurora borealis while these 
crystals were actually forming, or of delicate frost crystals on a carriage or room-window 
when there has been a sharp touch of frost set in. I was so delighted with the novel 
and unexpected phenomenon that I ran at once into the mess-room, and called my 
brother officers to look into the microscope; but though I could not have been absent 
from the room a minute, when we returned the coruscations and the crystallizations had 
entirely disappeared, and nothing but a pure fluid could be seen. The poison after¬ 
wards dried up on the glass, without the least appearance of crystals.” These are in¬ 
teresting facts in relation to the nature and activity of the cobra poison, which Mr. 
Buckland thinks acts by “curdling” the blood which is arrested in the heart. He 
therefore counsels the free use of stimulants; and in regard to topical applications, asks 
what is the use of applying these to the external skin when the poison has been inserted 
by the fang into the deeper parts of the surface. If we wish to destroy the poison by 
antidotes, they must be injected deeply into the wound. Mr. Buckland is not at the 
moment prepared to say what the antidote may be ; but he thinks it may be reasoned 
out pretty correctly.— The Lancet. 
ON THE SPECIAL ACTION OF THE PANCREAS ON FAT AND STARCH. 
BY HORACE DOBELL, M.D., ETC., 
PHYSICIAN TO THE ROYAL HOSPITAL FOR DISEASES OF THE CHEST, ETC. 
I have been engaged for several years in experimenting with the secretion of the 
pancreas. The inquiry of which I now make known the results has reference especially 
