med by Australian research and by
Feoktistow's elaborate experiments. It is strange that, after finding
the theory that explained all the phenomena, he did not follow it up by
applying the antidote to which his theory should have led him.

SNAKE-POISON AND ITS ACTION.

The poison gland of snakes is the analogue of the parotid gland of
mammals, both in position and structure. Its acini or alveoli are lined
with a layer of secretory, columnar, finely granular cells and arranged
with great regularity along the excretory duct, which is straight and
cylindrical and opens with vipers into the hollow poison fang, with our
colubrines into the groove on the anterior surface of it. Snake-poison,
as it leaves this gland, is a thin, albuminoid, yellow liquid of neutral
reaction. On exposure to the air it becomes viscid and slightly acid. Of
its chemical composition we know as yet but little, and it is very
questionable whether the most perfect chemical analysis of its
constituents would ever have given us a clue to its action or will
enrich our present knowledge of it. Like all albuminoid secreta it
becomes putrid after prolonged exposure and then, through ammonia
production, loses its acid, and assumes an alkaline reaction, still,
however, though in a modified degree, retaining its toxic properties,
which are completely lost only after an exposure of many months.
Feoktistow found that freezing at 1 deg. R. caused the poison to separate
into a solid mass and a thin, very yellow liquid, which, even at a
temperature of 4 deg. R., remained liquid, and the poisonous properties of
which greatly exceeded those of the solid mass. Boiling diminishes and,
continued for any length of time, completely destroys the potency of the
poison.

The microscope has done good service in the investigation of
snake-poison. It has, in the first place, informed us with absolute
certainty that there are no micro-organisms or germs of any kind in the
fresh poison immediately after it leaves the gland. But a still more
important revelation we owe to it is the fact that these organisms, when
we introduce them into a 2% solution of the poison, do not die, but
live, multiply, and enjoy their existence most lustily, as they do in
any other non-poisonous albuminoid liquid, whilst animals of a higher
type--say a snail or a frog--soon perish in it. In watching the
movements of the latter we find that they get slower and slower, and
finally cease. We now f