The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-11-11

A number of learned conclusions have,
in consequences, been drawn from these
The venom OF serpents
is not, it is said now. simple poison.
but pathogenic agent capable OF Sc
lecting the organs and tissues upon
which it can operate. Certain parts OF
the body appear proof against its raw
ages, while other parts succumb with
ont loss of time. Another peculiarly
about it is that in most instances it Is
but slightly effected by boiling; while
on the other hand, if kept, it will give
off bacteria after q certain interval.
That it is not, however, an organized
virus is shown in the fact that the ''cul-
ture LIQUID" as well as the fluids which
proceed from an inflammation due to
the poison, cause different symptoms
altogether from the poison itself, and
thus incubation from snake poison
could not be conducted on the princl-
nal of vaccination from the virus ot
cowpox. But the most remarkable d.s-
covery of all is that it is capable OF DIS
solving albumen, and that eventually II
NAV prove an excellent digestive, II
there be no internal LESSONS, and an
agent of good rather than of evil:
It will be. however, long while, we
take it, before the poison of the cobra
will be used instead of pancreatic emul-
sion for dyspeptic patients; for, not
withstanding that DR.. Stradling, OF
Paris, is reported to have swallowed
last week, without any i'll effects, five
or six drops of the venom of that dead
| " snake, after they had been placed on
a lump of sugar, society for the most
part would hesitate before they put an
enemy into their mouth which might
possibly steal away life. But an accu-
rate knowledge of what the various pol
sons of serpents really are and what
they can effect cannot but bring about
good results. NJ. Gautier, the celebra-
ted French savant, has just shown. in
deed, that there is not much difference
after all between human saliva and the
secretions from snake fangs. Taking
some twenty grammes of the salivary
| fluid and purifying it the other day, he
obtained q substance which, after being
Injected in the form of solution under
the skin of bird, threw it into state
of coma and complete stupor, and final
iy killed it in half an hour. Impressed
with so strange an experiment, M.
Gautier went further, and found that
the poisonous character of saliva was
not affected even when heated to a very
considerable degree, and after much
careful research he came to the conclu-
sion that, inasmuch as in its effects II
greatly resembles the bite of the cobra,
Eoth as respects the period OF coma, ex-
citation. commissions and tetanic con
traction, it is after all only modified
form of the venom from which we LILY
when the hooded Indian terror show:
its teeth. Further experiments revea
the fact that the poisonous matter o.
saliva. when mixed with the ferrocya
hide of potassium, produces, like coor;
poison q Prussian blue; and there l:
now reason to believe that the active
principle of it is an alkaloid similar t.
the cadaveric poisons called ptomaine!
which NM. Broardel and Bouimy hav'
isolated. There is nothing at all un
reasonable in all this. Possibly enough
the poison which serpents conceal il
,, the glands at the back of their fangs d
, aid them in the digestion of food, just il
, the same way as the human saliva
,, utilized by men; and it is somewhat de
grading to think that Rabelais was RICH
after all when he claimed polsonou
. property for the human bite, it Is Jus
!. as we'll that we should know precisel
!, what it is the cobra injects into its vic
,, tim, so as to be able eventually to coun
teract the effects.-LOndOn Daily leu
6 UrGph.