FACTS AND OBSF.RVATIONS. 
885 
fession in Zululand are not likely to be passed over in silence 
by those in command; but on the contrary, all veterinary 
surgeons have been spoken of well. Colonel Buller mentions 
Veterinary Surgeon Duck, of the Royal Artillery, as having 
during the whole campaign in Zululand, as well as during 
the disturbances in South Africa which preceded it, proved 
himself to be u not only a professional officer of high ability, 
but a good soldier.” “ He accompanied me,” says Colonel 
Buller, cf on every dangerous patrol, was frequently of the 
greatest assistance to me, and on the occasion of the disas¬ 
trous retreat from the Zlobane Mountain picked up the rifle 
of a dead man, volunteered, and served with the rear guard.” 
Veterinary Surgeon Lambert, 17th Lancers, at Ulundi 
received a wound in the hand. Veterinary Surgeons Ray- 
ment and Hagger were present also at that victorious action. 
Poison of Serpents. —Some interesting observations 
have recently been made on the poison of serpents by M. 
Lacerda, in the physiological laboratory of the National 
Museum at Rio Janeiro, which have led him to the conclu¬ 
sion that, in some cases at least, the venom contains an 
organised ferment presenting some analogies to bacteria. M. 
Lacerda states that a drop of venom removed from a rattle¬ 
snake under the influence of chloroform and examined with 
the aid of a microscope, appears as a " species of filamen¬ 
tous protoplasmic matter consisting of a cellular aggregation 
disposed in arborescent form resembling certain lycopods.” 
The development and reproduction of these cells is described 
in a paper read before the French Academy of Sciences 
(Comptes RenduSy lxxxvii, 1094). Similar phenomena were 
observed in the blood of animals that had been bitten by the 
rattlesnake, and it was found that such blood was capable of 
setting up the change in the blood of other animals when 
injected hypodermically, and that this change was followed 
by the death of the animal .—Pharmaceutical Journal. 
Test for Carbolic Acid. —Add bromine water to the 
suspected liquid ; if carbolic acid is present a precipitate of 
tri-cromophenal falls ; if none there is no change. 
Vermin-killer. —A number of chemists and others have 
been fined in several towns of Lincolnshire for selling poisons 
(generally vermin-killer) without observing the regulations 
required by the Pharmacy Act. 
