Microscopical Society of Victoria. 13 
parts where stasis of the blood may occur, and thus give rise to 
epileptiform symptoms ; or perhaps the first action of the altered 
condition of the blood may be indicated by severe syncope, which 
being promptly met by the use of ammonia, may cause a cessation 
of further toxic effects for a time. Be this as it may, I will now 
conclude these remarks by an extract from my paper on the 
“ Effects of Prussic Acid on the Animal Economy/’ published in 
1866: 
“The interest which attaches to the facts I have brought 
forward is not limited to chemical theories, or to our use of 
prussic acid as a remedial agent, but the facts observed may also 
serve to explain important points in physiology and pathology. I 
here briefly allude to some discoveries in pathological science which 
relate to amyloid substances discovered in the animal tissue, and 
about which so much has been written during late years. That 
the so-called corpora amylacea , or starch-grains, found in different 
organs of the human subject, and referable to some morbid 
condition of the blood, may take their origin from some similar 
chemical changes as those to which I have drawn attention, and 
that perhaps, in many instances, these have only been formed at 
the time of death, and arc referable to post mortem changes, except 
in such cases as resemble the one of epilepsy recorded in the 
Microscopical Journal (Eng.) of 1855 by Mr. Stratford, of Toronto, 
who speaks of having noticed starch-grains in the blood drawn 
from an epileptic patient during life.” 
Connected with this subject of changes in the blood from toxic 
materials, I would point to the observations of Professor Halford, 
of this city, on the effects of snake poison on the blood, and which 
observations are to this day denied or ignored, but I consider to 
be quite in accord with the action of hydrocyanic acid as a quasi- 
organic poison. 
Kew, August 1881. 
