The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-11-12

shortly, and was, in fact, quite dlgested
A number of learned conclusions have
in consequence, been drawn from thes'
experiments. The venom of serpent
is not, it is said now, simple poison
but pathogenic agent capable OF Sc
lecting the organs and tissues upor
which it can operate. Certain parts O
the body appear proof against its raw
ages, while other parts succumb with
out loss of time. Another peculiarly
about it is that in most instances II is
but slightly effected by boiling, while
on the other hand, if kept, it will give
off bacteria after a 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 princi-
pal of vaccination from the virus OF
cowpox. But the most remarkable dis
covery of all is that it is capable of dis
solving albumen, and that eventually it
may prove an excellent digestive, if
there be no internal LESSONS, and an
agent of good rather than of evil.
1t 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 DIR. Stradling, of
Paris, is reported to have swallowed
last week, without any ill effects, five
or six drops of the venom of that dead
ly snake, after they had been placed on
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 poi
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 a substance which, after being
injected in the form of a solution under
the skin of bird, threw it into state
of coma and complete stupor, and final
ly 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 it's effects it
greatly resembles the bite of the cobra,
both 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 fly
when the hooded Indian terror shows
its teeth. Further experiments reveal
the fact that the poisonous matter of
saliva, when mixed with the ferrocya-
hide of potassium, produces, like cobra
poison Prussian blue; and there is
now reason to believe that the active
principle of it is an alkaloid similar to
the cadaveric poisons called ptomaines
which MN. Broardel and Boulmy have
isolated. There is nothing at all I'M
reasonable in all this. Possibly enough
the poison which serpents conceal in
the glands at the back of their fangs do
aid them in the digestion of food, just in
the same way as the human saliva is
by. men; and it is somewhat de-
grading to think that Rabelais was right
after all when he claimed poisonous
for the human bite, it is Just
as we'll that we should know precisely
what it is the cobra injects into its vic
tim, so as to be able eventually to coun-
teract the effects. London Daily Tele-
graph.