154 
POISON  OF  THE  NORTHERN  RATTLESNAKE."  j 
sonous  to  animals.  But  the  influence  of  animal  and  vegetable 
poisons  upon  plants,  has — although  a  subject  scarcely  less  inte- 
resting in  a  physiological  point  of  view — excited  but  little  atten- 
tion. The  simplicity  of  the  plant's  structure  renders  the  field 
one  of  peculiar  interest,  in  the  way  of  studying  the  general 
action  of  medicinal  agents  and  poisons  upon  organized  tissues. 
On  the  18th  of  June,  1851,  a  large  female  rattlesnake,  which 
had  been  caged  in  the  N.  Y.  State  Cabinet  of  Natural  History, 
for  about  a  year,  without  food,  died.  On  dissection,  its  stomach 
and  intestinal  canal  were  found  entirely  empty.  The  sac  into 
which  the  poison  is  emptied  was  laid  open,  and  the  virulent  mat- 
ter (of  which  there  was  little),  carefully  removed  and  placed  in 
a  porcelain  capsule.  About  fifteen  minutes  after  its  removal, 
four  young  shoots  of  the  lilac,  Syringa  vulgaris,,  a  small 
horse-chesnut  of  one  year's  growth — Aesculus  hippocastanum, 
a  corn  plant — Zea  Maize,  a  sunflower  plant — Helianthus  an- 
num, and  a  wild  cucumber  vine,  were  severally  vaccinated  with 
it.  The  vaccination  was  performed  by  dipping  the  point  of  a 
pen-knife  into  the  poisonous  matter  and  then  inserting  it  into 
the  plant  just  beneath  the  inner  bark.  No  visible  effect,  in 
either  case,  of  the  influence  of  the  poison  was  perceptible  till 
about  sixty  hours  after  it  had  been  inserted.  Soon  after  this  the 
leaves  above  the  wound,  in  each  case,  began  to  wilt.  The  bark 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  incision  exhibited  scarcely  a  perceptible 
change  ;  in  fact  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  have  found  the 
points,  if  they  had  not  been  marked  when  the  poison  was  in- 
serted. Ninety-six  hours  after  the  operation,  nearly  all  the 
leaf-blades,  in  each  of  the  plants,  above  the  wounded  part  were 
wilted,  and  apparently  quite  dead.  On  the  fifth  day  the  petioles 
and  bark  above  the  incisions  began  to  lose  their  freshness ;  and 
on  the  sixth  they  were  considerably  withered.  On  the  seventh 
day  they  appeared  about  as  they  did  on  the  sixth.  On  the  tenth 
they  began  to  show  slight  signs  of  recovery.  On  the  fifteenth, 
new,  but  sickly  appearing  leaves  began  to  show  themselves  on 
the  lilacs,  and  the  other  plants  began  to  show  slight  signs  of  re- 
covery in  the  same  way.  Neither  of  the  plants  were  entirely 
deprived  of  life. 
It  was  interesting  to  mark  the  progressive  influence  of  the 
poison.    The  first  indication  of  the  derangement  of  the  healthy 
