On poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence and medicine / by Alfred Swaine Taylor.
- Date:
- 1875
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence and medicine / by Alfred Swaine Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![BNTKANCE OF POISON BY WOUNDS. mLt^fr!,^'' 1^*'^ ' f^'o™ ^^our and eight Nnv i flS hours and ten minutes ('Australian Medical Joilr.' ^ov. 18/J.; In an experiment with cobra-poison made by Dr' ir-avy and myself, the symptoms in a rabbit came on a quarter of an hour after its mtroduction into the ceUular membrane. ..^■^'^'^■^'■ood-vesseh, including ^uounds.—This mode of entrance mto the body has rather a physiological than a medico-lega] interest. When a poison is introduced directly into tlie hloud eitner by injection into a vessel or by a wound, it will be under^ stood that Its effects are rapidly produced. Sir R. Christisoii louna that when the mm-iate of conia was injected into the lemoral vein of a dog, he was unable, with his watch in his hand, to notice any appreciable interval between the moment at which it was injected and tliat in which the animal died. The interval did not exceed tliree, or at most four, seconds. Prussic acid and Fig. 1. Poison glands duct and fang in situ. L lobe of gland, D duct, F fans GG gland, M mucous capsule of fang, R reserved fangs, AA fascia or membrane covering the glands. '■'^^'■a. ui strychnia act almost instantaneously under these circumstances Dr. Fayrer found that when the cobra-poison was injected into the jugular vein of an animal, the action of the heart was at once arrested. The heart was not paralysed, but thrown into a state of tetanic contraction from excessive stimulus. I am indebted to Dr. Fayi-er for the annexed diagram of the poison-gland of a poisonous snake. The gland is encased in a cap- sule, and is partially covered by fibres of muscle (the masseter) whose action in closing the jaw at the same time compresses tlie gland and squeezes the poison through the duct into the perforated or grooved fang, whence it issues F (see fig. 1). There is probably no instrument so perfectly constructed as the tooth of a venomous serpent for the introduction of liquid poison by means of a wound. It is such as to insure its rapid absorption and diffusion through the body of the bitten animal. The tooth is](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21952085_0032.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
