Table of symptoms and lesions in seven cases of pigeons poisoned by Crotalus venom Table of symptoms in eight rabbits Table of lesions in the same Effect of Crotalus venom on dogs Cases which recovered. Fatal cases CHAPTER VII. ACTION OF VENOM ON THE TISSUES AND FLUIDS. The venom harmless when taken into the stomach Pulmonary absorption of the venom in pigeons with fatal results Effect of the venom on the muscles Effect of the venom on the rigor mortis Ultimate effect of venom on muscles Effect of venom on the heart Effect of venom on the constant arterial pressure Action of venom on the capillary system Action of venom on the intestinal movements Action of venom on the ciliary movement Action of the venom on the nervous system Direct effect of venom on nerve trunks Action of the venom on the sensory and motor nerves and upon the nerve centres Effect of venom on the blood . Effect of venom on the blood in acute poisoning Effect of venom on the blood in chronic poisoning Table of blood changes Loss of fibrin in chronic poisoning Influence on the blood-corpuscles The rate at which the fibrin disappears from the blood Conclusions Altered relation between the blood and tissues. Cause of death Conclusions Analogy between the symptoms of Crotalus poisoning and those of certain diseases CHAPTER VIII. CROTALUS POISONING IN MAN, Table of Crotalus poisoning in man Sex of those bitten Situation of the wound AN ENUMERATION OF THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF RATTLESNAKES, WITH SYNONYMY AND REFER- 119 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 127 Figure 6. A. The gland and temporal muscles seen from above. B. Diagram of duct and 11 Figure 7. Microscopical structure of the venom gland 13 Figure 8. Figure 9. Epithelial cells of the main duct and receptacle at the base of the gland 14 14 Figure 11. Figure 12. Crystals deposited from the diluted venom of the C. confluentus (Prof. Hammond) 32 80 1 In Fig. 3, p. 9, Description-d is described as the spheno-palatine muscle. It should be labelled, Central raphe at the base of the skull. B INTRODUCTION. POPULAR tradition has long nourished a general aversion to serpents. This dread, fostered by the singular qualities of the snake tribe, has become so familiar an idea to most minds, as to lead to the belief that it is of instinctive origin, and not sown, as it surely is, by the hand of traditional prejudice. However produced, dread and disgust seem to have had some influence in preventing physicians in this country from investigating the venom of the species of serpents, whose strange peculiarities and fatal powers have most urged them upon their notice. It has thus happened, that with the exception of the Essays of Barton and Brainard, the cis-Atlantic literature of this subject has been confined to scattered notices and incomplete statements of cases, to be found with difficulty in the pages of our numerous medical journals. Apart from the European and East Indian publications upon snake-bites, we know or have learned but little that is new; and if we except the works of Fontana, Mangili, Bonaparte, and one or two others, in no part of the world has modern science done much to further this inquiry. Such being the case, I conceive that no excuse is required in presenting the results of investigations upon a subject which has peculiar claims on the attention of our countrymen. A large part of what is here set forth has some pretension to be regarded as original research; but the subject is so ample, and has presented itself under so many points of view, that I can scarcely regard this paper as more than a re-opening of the matter; and I feel that however full it may be upon some points, it is rather the pledge of future labors than a complete exposition of the subject upon which it treats. For the researches which form the novel part of the following essay, I claim only exactness of detail and honesty of statement. Where the results have appeared to me inconclusive, and where further experimental questioning has not resolved the doubt, I have fairly confessed my inability to settle the matter. This course I have adhered to in every such instance, thinking it better to state the known uncertainty thus created than to run the risk of strewing my path with errors in the garb of seeming truths. In the following researches I have made use almost altogether of the single |