On the nature and physiological action of the Crotalus-poison as compared with that of Naja tripudians and other Indian venomous snakes : also investigations into the nature of the influence of Naja- and Crotalus-poison on ciliary and amoeboid action and on Vallisneria, and on the influence of inspiration of pure oxygen on poisoned animals / by T. Lauder Brunton and J. Fayrer.

Brunton, T. Lauder (Thomas Lauder), Sir, 1844-1917.

Date:: [1875]

Credit: On the nature and physiological action of the Crotalus-poison as compared with that of Naja tripudians and other Indian venomous snakes : also investigations into the nature of the influence of Naja- and Crotalus-poison on ciliary and amoeboid action and on Vallisneria, and on the influence of inspiration of pure oxygen on poisoned animals / by T. Lauder Brunton and J. Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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paper to compare with these the action of the Crotalus-yirus in its general effects on life, on the functions, organs, and tissues, and especially as it affects the blood and vessels as regards a marked influence in causing hiemorrhages and extravasations of blood generally and locally; and, further, to examine the action of snake-poison generally on ciliary and amoeboid movements—or that which represents its action on contracti- lity, apart from that which is caused through the medium of the nerve- centres and nerve-distribution. It appears that there is little difference between the physiological effects of the crotaline or viperine and the colubrine virus. The mode in which death is brought about is essentially the same in all; though there are evidences, even when allowing for individual peculiarities, that the action is marked by some points of difference sufficiently characteristic to require notice in detail. We have already expressed our belief that death is caused by the cobra-, Daboia-, and Hydrophis-poison, 1st, through its action on the cerebro-spinal nerve-centres, especially on the medulla, inducing paralysis of respiratiou; or 2nd, in some cases (where the poison has entered the circulation in large quantities and has been conveyed more directly to the heart) by arrest, tetanically in systole, of cardiac action, probably owing to some action on the cardiac ganglia ; 3rd, by a combination of the two previous causes; 4th, by a septic condition of a secondary nature, and which, being more essentially pathological in its bearings, the details were not considered suitable for discussion here. There is reason to believe that death is caused in the same way by the CVotrtZws-poison also ; and it appears, from the experiments recently per- formed in Calcutta, by Dr. Ewart and the members of the Committee appointed by Government, upon Pseudcchis porphyriacus, or the black snake, and Hoplocephalm curtus, or the tiger-snake of Australia, that their virus causes death in the same manner. These reptiles had been sent from Melbourne to Calcutta for the purpose of investigation and comparison. ( Vide Committee’s Deport, p. 58 et seq., Appendix.) But though the actual cause of death is essentially the same, the phe- nomena which precede and accompany it differ in some degree according to the nature of the poison, the quantity and site of the inoculations, and the individual peculiarities of the creature inoculated, as may be seen in the experiments herewith recorded. The condition of an animal poisoned by the rattlesnake-venom, then, essentially resembles that of one subjected to the influence of the colubrine or vip’erine poison of Indian snakes:— Depression, hurried respiration, exhaustion, lethargy, unconsciousness, nausea, retching, and vomiting (vide experiment on cat, Exp. IX.). Muscular twitchings, ataxy, paralysis, and convulsions (the latter pro- bably chiefly, though not entirely, due to circulation of imperfectly oxy- genated blood, the result of impeded respiration), and, finally, death.

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