406 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol'. XV. 



vonoms of three of our Indian snakes, viz., Naia tripudians (cobra), 

 Bungarus fasciatus (banded krait), and Daboia Russellii (chain viper)." 

 Now this serum had been made by the use of one kind of venom only 

 and was, thereforo, better fitted for testing the question of specificity 

 than Calmette's, which is prepared by using cobra venom mixed in 

 varying proportion with that of other serpents. The amount of cobra 

 venom, used, however, appears to be so preponderating, that for 

 practical purposes it also may be regarded as a specific serum, useful 

 only against this one kind of poison. 



In the paper communicated by Captain Lamb to our Journal, you 

 will find an account of how the serum is procured and the method of 

 using it in cases of cobra bite. I need not, therefore, go over that 

 ground again, but would merely remind you, that if given in 

 sufficiently large doses, and before symptoms of the venom intoxication 

 have become pronounced, we have in Calmette's antivenene a safe and 

 good remedy for cobra bite. 



But alas ! when we turn to the other dangerous snakes of India we 

 find the serum wholly useless. Captain Lamb and Dr. Hanna, (5) work- 

 ing together in the Parel Laboratory, have conclusively proved that 

 antivenene is powerless to prevent death in animals poisoned by the 

 venom of the chain viper {Daboia Russellii). Since then Captain Lamb 

 (4) has been able to test Calmette's antivenene against the poisons of 

 the banded krait {Bungarus faseiatus) and the phoorsa (Echis carinatd). 

 I need not describe the long series of experiments by which he proved: 

 his point ; those of you who desire to read of these must go to the original 

 paper, published by Government as No. 5 of the New Series of Scientific 

 Memoirs by Officers of the Medical and Sanitary Departments of the 

 Government of India. Those of us who know the experimenter and 

 his careful methods will realise the weight that must be given to his 

 conclusion, that Calmette's antivenene (p. 5) " is of no value whatever 

 in the treatment of cases of bites from Daboia Russellii, Bungarus 

 faseiatus, or Echis carinata." 



In summing up his observations on Calmette's antivenene and Tids- 

 well's Hoplocephalus serum he says : (p. 6) " We have seen that the 

 Australian snakes belong to the same sub-family, but to different genera 

 as the cobra and the banded krait. Those results therefore, taken along 

 with the results collated above, got with Calmette's serum, show conclu- 

 sively that the serum prepared with the venom of any one genus of 



