In all but the very lightest cases of snakebite-poisoning there are always symptoms manifested that cannot be referred to any other cause than an invasion of the centres now under consideration. They range from mere stupor, confusion of thought and delirium to the deepest coma, with complete extinction of consciousness and insensibility to all external impressions. Coma is a frequent and in serious cases an almost invariable symptom in Australia. After the bite of our death adder only we find persons sometimes collapse and expire suddenly, when still conscious and able to answer questions rationally. Coma invariably develops from sleep. It is, in fact, sleep intensified. An almost irresistible desire to sleep is one of the first symptoms to be observed. If the dose of poison imparted by the snake has been small, the desire may pass off or the sleep may not assume the form of coma, but in all serious cases it quickly assumes that form. _Vice versa_ the deepest coma becomes sleep again, when the suspended function of the cortical centres is roused by strychnine injections. The insensible and completely paralysed patient usually announces the gradual return of consciousness by a few groans and uneasy movements and not unfrequently begins to snore, as in ordinary sleep, when a smart shake at the shoulder will rouse him into full consciousness. At other times this transition from coma back to sleep does not take place and consciousness returns quite suddenly, the persons opening their eyes and looking around them, dazed and bewildered, but perfectly conscious at once. When coma is fully established and the largest and most powerful motor-centres have succumbed to the insidious poison, general paresis becomes general paralysis and all the motor-centres of the body are in a condition of more or less suspended functional activity. This and this only is the condition of the centres, the whole secret of snake-poison, that has puzzled the human mind for ages and yet appears so simple when discovered at last. It is beautifully and strikingly illustrated in the phenomena before us. We have coma and complete general paralysis, every motor-nerve cell, from the highest psycho-motor one downwards, is thrown into a state of torpor and has ceased to discharge the life force that regulates every process of life and the entire absence of which inevitably must be death. Only weak, lingering currents are sent forth yet and put off the inevitable finale for a time. But the strychnine is injected and mark the change. It courses quickly to every one of the sleepers, for whom it also has an affinity, but the direct opposite to that of the deadly venom that has overpowered them. It touches them as if with the wand of a magician and orders them to awake and do their work. There is no disobeying the mandate, for it is founded on one of nature's unchangeable laws. Almost immediately the cells begin their