Researches upon the venom of the rattlesnake : with an investigation of the anatomy and physiology of the organs concerned . ers, the venom enteredinto decomposition when long kept in the moist state, but although it then deve-loped vibriones, and even low confervoid growths, and smelt most horribly, it wasstill poisonous. How long it would retain its virulence under these circumstances,and what extent of putrefactive change might be needed to destroy this quality,I cannot state from my own experience. Many specimens of venom let fall, on repose, a white sediment, which, in afew cases, was ver
Researches upon the venom of the rattlesnake : with an investigation of the anatomy and physiology of the organs concerned . ers, the venom enteredinto decomposition when long kept in the moist state, but although it then deve-loped vibriones, and even low confervoid growths, and smelt most horribly, it wasstill poisonous. How long it would retain its virulence under these circumstances,and what extent of putrefactive change might be needed to destroy this quality,I cannot state from my own experience. Many specimens of venom let fall, on repose, a white sediment, which, in afew cases, was very abundant. The clear poison presented no points of interestwhen viewed microscopically. When dry, it cracked like dried white of egg,but under no management has it afforded me crystals. My friend Prof. Ham-mond^ has been more successful, and has obtained crystals by diluting the venomof the G. covfluentiis, and allowing the mixture to dry slowly, sheltered by acover-glass. (Fig. 11.) The crystals thus formed, resembled those of ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate, which affect the feathery form of crystallization. Fiff. The white deposit was composed chiefly of amorphous, granular matter, with afew pavement epithelial cells, compound granular bodies of oleaginous character,and finally of the peculiar masses known and described as colloid bodies,^ and in * Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, Gazetta Toscana, delle Scienze Medico-fisiche, Anno primo, Firenze,1843. I have been unable to find this memoir, and have been forced to employ Orfilas quotation of hisresults. Orfila, Tox. Gen., p. 844. ^ Fig. 11 is taken from Prof. Hammonds drawing, which he kindly put at my disposal. ^ Wedl, Pathological Histology, Trans, of the Sydenham Society, pp. 38, 264, 211, etc. OF THE VENOM OF THE RATTLESNAKE. 33 appearance so mucli resembling starch granules, as to have induced me to neglectthem at first, and to suppose them to be really that substance, accidentallypresent. These corpuscular bodies we
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