WALL.--"On the Difference in the Physiological Effects produced by the Poison of Indian Venomous Snakes." Proc. Royal Soc., 1881, vol. xxxii., p. 333. Among those enumerated above Wall is the only one who formulated a correct and thoroughly scientific theory of the action of snake-poison, which has since been confirmed 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° R. caused the poison to separate into a solid mass and a thin, very yellow liquid, which, even at a temperature of 4° 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.