468 
Snake  Poisons. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Phaem. 
t     Oct.  1,  1873. 
1  gram  KI— 81  gram  HgCl2. 
In  conclusion,  I  would  strongly  recommend  pharmacists  to  practice 
these  volumetric  processes,  for  they  afford  easy  means  of  determining 
purity  in  many  cases  in  a  few  minutes  where  the  ordinary  processes 
take  as  many  kuurs. — Pharm.  Journ.  and  Trans.,  Lond.  June  28, 
1873.   
SNAKE  POISONS. 
Twenty  thousand  people,  it  is  stated,  yearly  die,  in  Hindostan 
alone,  from  the  effects  of  the  bites  of  venomous  serpents.  It  is  a 
strange  fact  that  this  poison,  so  deadly  and  virulent  in  its  effects,  may 
be  swallowed  with  impunity.  Its  action  seems  to  be  the  complete 
paralyzation  of  the  nervous  centres  through  the  medium  of  the  blood, 
in  which  it  spreads  through  the  body  with  lightning  rapidity.  Ap- 
plied to  the  mucous  membrane  it  causes  violent  local  inflammation; 
and  absorption  quickly  taking  place,  the  symptoms  of  general  poi- 
soning are  soon  apparent.  The  effects  of  the  venom  depend,  first 
upon  the  nature  of  the  snake,  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  poison 
and  the  circumstances  under  which  the  bite  is  given  ;  second,  on  the 
species,  size  and  vigor  of  the  living  creature  receiving  the  wound. 
M.  Fayrer,  professor  in  the  Medical  College  of  Calcutta,  has  re- 
cently published  a  work  on  tiie  serpents  of  India,  in  which,  refer- 
ring to  the  action  of  the  virus  upon  the  blood,  he  says  that,  though 
he  has  been  unable  to  detect  any  change  in  the  appearance  of  the 
corpuscles,  yet  there  is  no  question  but  that  some  alteration  takes 
place.  In  inferior  animals  the  bites  of  vipers  destroy  in  the  blood 
the  coagulating  faculty,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  by  the  venom  of 
colubrines,  coagulation  after  death  is  not  interrupted.  Again,  when 
inoculated  by  the  poison  of  the  cobra,  the  blood  immediately  coagu- 
lates, but  remains  liquid  if  the  bite  be  given  by  the  daboia.  Experi- 
ments made  in  this  country  with  the  rattlesnake  show  that  the  effects 
of  its  venom  upon  the  human  blood  are  quite  apparent.  Dr.  Burnett, 
in  a  paper  read  some  time  ago  before  the  Boston  Natural  History 
Society,  gives  an  account  of  a  microscopical  examination,  during 
which  the  smallest  quantity  of  poison,  taken  from  the  fangs  of  a 
large  rattlesnake,  was  presented  to  blood  freshly  drawn  from  the 
finger.  A  change  was  immediately  perceived  ;  the  corpuscles  ceased 
to  run  and  pile  together,  and  remained  stagnant,  without  any  special 
alteration  of  structure,  and  the  whole  appearance  was  as  though  the 
