AN ANTIDOTE TO SNAKE-POISON. 
547 
The dry colouring matter, redissolved in a small quantity of alcohol, was injected 
under the skin of the thigh of a dog, a rabbit, and a frog. The three animals died: the 
frog the same day, after four hours ; the dog the next day, after having survived thir^v- 
six hours ; the rabbit not till the day following. The dog and the rabbit had excessive 
and incessant evacuations. The experimenters then determined to try the coralline it¬ 
self. In order to obtain it, they applied to M. Persoz, jun., who discovered it in the 
year 1860, and who placed at their disposal three specimens : the first a pure coralline, 
the second the red coralline of commerce, the third the yellow coralline. The coral¬ 
line, or peonine , is obtained from rosolic acid, which is itself a derivative by oxidation 
from phenic acid. It is formed in a close vessel, heated to 150 degrees, by the contact 
of rosolic acid and ammonia. The result is a solid matter, in plates, of a poppy-red 
colour, green, or dull yellow, by reflected light, nearly insoluble in water, soluble in 
alcohol and oils, and which has all the characters of an amidic acid. 
A quantity of the alcoholic solution containing 2^ grains of solid coralline was injected 
under the skin of a dog of medium size. The next day, and the day after, it was dis¬ 
pirited and depressed, suffered from well-marked intestinal derangements and loss of 
appetite, and the thigh near the seat of the injection had become painful. The animal 
showed signs of suffering, and walked lame. The fourth day a quantity equivalent to 
3 grains of coralline was injected. The symptoms reappeared almost immediately, the 
alvine evacuations returned, the weakness continued to increase, the fever grew more and 
more intense, and the pain in the thigh became more acute. The animal trembled and 
could not support itself, its eye grew dim, and it died the third day after the second in¬ 
jection. A rabbit, after a single injection containing 1| grains of pure coralline, died 
in four hours with the same symptoms. Less than f of a grain of the colouring matter 
killed a frog still more quickly. 
The examination of the viscera of the animals so poisoned was full of interest. At 
the point where the coralline had passed under the skin, there was acute inflammation 
of the cellular tissue, with purulent infiltration. The stomach was healthy, but the in¬ 
testines, enormously distended with fluid, bore distinct traces of acute inflammation of 
the mucous membrane. The liver had undergone fatty degeneration. Lastly (and this 
is the essential character of the poisoning), the lungs in the dog, and still more in the 
rabbit, appeared as if themselves stained by the colouring matter, and presented through¬ 
out a very beautiful scarlet tint, which spread uniformly over their surface, so as to 
efface the lobular divisions and the vessels ramifying upon them. 
M. Roussin, by an ingenious process, succeeded in dyeing red a skein of silk with the 
colouring matter taken from the liver and lungs of the poisoned animals. In this way 
the coralline, which had been the cause of the poisoning, was detected by the charac¬ 
teristic property of the colouring matter, just as atropine and digitaline are identified 
by the power they respectively possess of dilating the pupil, and arresting the heart’s beat. 
It was a new application, as happy as unexpected, of the physiological and experimental 
method now so largely used in the detection of organic poisons. 
Coralline, then, is doubtless a very energetic poison. When introduced into the living 
body, even in a small dose, it may cause death. It belongs to a class of bodies which is 
every day increasing with the incessant progress of the chemical arts; and it affords a 
new example of the importance, both for hygiene and legal medicine, of following the 
march and progress of industry, and of studying the influence which its recent conquests 
may exercise on the health of human beings .—Les Mondes , par M. VAbbe Moiqno, 
4 Fierier 1869. 
AN ANTIDOTE TO SNAKE-POISON. 
We have received from a correspondent, recently arrived in this country from Aus¬ 
tralia, an account of Professor Halford’s experiments on animals, with the view of dis¬ 
covering an agent which should avert the poisonous effects of the bites of venomous 
snakes. The subject has recently attracted a large amount of attention in that country, 
owing to the professor having employed his remedy—a solution of ammonia injected 
into the veins—with success in the case of a man exhibiting all the symptoms of snake¬ 
poisoning in a dangerous degree. We take our account from a contemporary. A man 
was bitten by a venomous snake, which he had taken into his hands, supposing it to be 
2 p 2 
