122 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV. 



found that the serum of these animals had distinct antitoxic powers if 

 administered within an hour of the injection of the venom, causing what 

 would have been a lethal dose to be less so or non-effective. 



Professor Fraser in 1895 administered large doses of cobra venom into 

 the stomach of a cat, producing no poisonous effects on it ; but the cat -was 

 found to be immune to the poison when given hypodermically, and that its 

 blood serum had antitoxic properties. He also found that its kittens 

 acquired protection through the milk supplied by the mother. 



Snake men are believed to acquire a certain amount of immunity by the 

 repeated inunctions of small doses of venom on the hand, or, in Africa, by 

 eating the head of the snake — at least that is a common opinion held in 

 South Africa. Captain Elliot, I.M.S., from his recent observations in India 

 brings forward evidence to favour the following conclusions : — 



(1) That " snake men" in India, as a rule, have no knowledge of acquiring 

 any immunity, but trust to their own intimate familiarity with the habits of 

 the snakes, or to the previous mutilation of them, by removing their fangs, 

 or sometimes by producing an internal fistula from the poison gland into 

 the mouth. 



(2) That a few do practice swallowing venom or the inunction of venom 

 into the limbs. 



(3) That they confine their work entirely to the cobra, the Daboia being 

 very irritable, uncertain, and not at all amenable to their charming. 



Calmette has shown that the antitoxic properties present in the serum 

 of animals immunised against venom are not due to the direct action of the 

 antitoxin on the virus, but that it is exerted through the tissue elements of 

 the animal. He next proved that by mixing the venoms of various snakes, 

 including Naja Daboia and Hoplocephalus, etc., and removing the coagu- 

 lable irritative proteid, using only the active toxin of the dialised non- 

 coagulable form, he was able tc produce an antitoxic serum (from horses) 

 which immunised animals and man from lethal doses of any venom, although 

 each snake venom has per se well-marked toxic peculiarities producing 

 several and various local phenomena. 



In 1898 Major Semple, R..A.M.C, Captain Lyons, I.M.S., and Staff-Surgeon 

 Andrews, R.N. , under the supervision of Professor Calmette by a very com- 

 plete set of experiments demonstrated that antivenomous 3erum could be 

 prepared from horses which had a very high antitoxic power ; that its preser- 

 vative action shows itself almost instantaneously when injected intravenously, 

 but if injected subcutaneously, only after a period of one to three hours ; 

 that under certain conditions it acts as a vaccine. They also proved that 

 the duration of immunity so produced is short ; the greater the quantity of 

 serum injected, the longer this immunity remains. Its principal characteristic 

 was its rapidity of action and its efficacy against all venoms whether from 

 Colubrine or Viperine snakes. They found that this antivenine is easily 

 kept, as it does not lose its protective properties when heated to 140° F. 



