On snake poison : its action and its antidote / by A. Mueller.

  • Mueller, A.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On snake poison : its action and its antidote / by A. Mueller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/108 (page 15)
    SNAKE-POISON AND ITS ACTION. The poison gland of snakes is the analogue of the parotid gland of mammals, both in position and struc- ture. 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 pro- duction, loses its acid, and assumes an alkaline re- action, still, however, though in a modified degree, retaining its toxic properties, which are completely lost only after an exposure of many months. Feok- tistow found that freezing at 1° R. caused the poison to separate into a solid mass and a thin, very yellow