CAUSE  OF  DEATH  FROM  SNAKE-BITES. 
61 
although  his  investigations  might  be  considered  more  within  the 
province  of  the  physiologist  than  of  the  pharmaceutist,  I  think 
a  few  extracts  from  them  might  be  highly  interesting  to  the 
latter. 
The  Professor  directs  his  attention  to  the  state  of  the  blood 
after  death,  and  in  all  cases  finds  it  dark,  very  fluid,  and  without 
any  tendancy  to  coagulate  on  exposure.  He  finds  it  to  contain 
a  large  number  of  foreign  cells,  which,  when  highly  magnified 
under  the  microscope,  are  seen  to  contain  nuceli.  His  own 
words  will  probably  best  describe  them. 
"  When  a  person  is  mortally  bitten  by  the  cobra  de  capello, 
molecules  of  living  6  germinal '  matter  are  thrown  into  the 
blood  and  speedily  grow  into  cells,  and  as  rapidly  multiply,  so 
that  in  a  few  hours  millions  upon  millions  are  produced  at  the 
expense,  as  far  as  I  can  at  present  see,  of  the  oxygen  absorbed 
into  the  blood  during  inspiration  ;  hence  the  gradual  decrease 
and  ultimate  extinction  of  combustion  and  chemical  change  in 
every  other  part  of  the  body,  followed  by  coldness,  sleepiness, 
insensibility,  slow  breathing,  and  death. 
"  The  cells  which  thus  render,  in  so  short  a  time,  the  blood 
unfit  to  support  life,  are  circular,  with  a  diameter  on  the  average 
of  one  seventeen-hundredth  of  an  inch.  They  contain  a  nearly 
round  nucleus  of  one  two-thousand-eight-hundredth  of  an  inch 
in  breadth,  which,  when  further  magnified,  is  seen  to  contain 
other  more  minute  spherules  of  living  '  germinal '  matter.  In 
addition  to  this,  the  application  of  magenta  reveals  a  minute 
colored  spot  at  some  part  of  the  circumference  of  the  cell.  This 
besides  its  size,  distinguishes  it  from  the  white  pus,  or  lymph 
corpuscle. 
"  Thus,  then,  it  would  seem  that  as  the  vegetable  cell  requires 
for  its  growth  inorganic  food  and  the  liberation  of  oxygen,  so  the 
animal  cell  requires  for  its  growth  organic  food  and  the  absorp- 
tion of  oxygen.  Its  food  is  present  in  the  blood,  and  it  meets  it 
in  the  lungs ;  thus  the  whole  blood  becomes  disorganized,  and 
nothing  is  found  after  death  but  dark  fluid  blood, — its  fluidity 
indicating  the  loss  of  fibrine,  the  dark  color  its  want  of  oxygen, 
which  it  readily  absorbs  after  death." 
The  Professor  considers  this  a  probable  clue  to  the  further 
