THE VENOMS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 533 



newly-discovered antidote for snake-bites.' Professor Hal- 

 ford, so far from claiming the discovery of an ' antidote/ 

 emphatically explained that ammonia thus used was 'only a 

 mode of treatment.' 'It must never be forgotten,' he said, 

 'that ammonia cannot destroy the venom;' by which we 

 comprehend what the scientific mean by an ' antidote,' 

 something that effectually dest^-oys, ne-iUralizcs, and anni- 

 hilates the poison. Sir Joseph Fayrer, after long and 

 elaborate experiments with the Indian thanatophidia, 

 prescribes various remedies and modes of treatment, ' but do 

 not confuse these with antidotes!' he urges.^ 'To conceive 

 of an antidote to snake poison in the true sense of the term,' 

 he explains, 'one must imagine a substance so subtle as to 

 follow, overtake, and neutralize the venom in the blood, or 

 that shall have the power of counteracting and neutralizing 

 the deadly influence it has exerted on the vital forces. Such 

 a substance has still to be found, and our present experience 

 of the action of drugs does not lead to hopeful anticipation 

 that we shall find it.' 



Notwithstanding these confident assertions, we are 

 continually reading of ' an infallible cure for snake-bite, 

 never known to fail ; ' ' another antidote to snake-bite ; * or 

 that ' at length an antidote has been discovered,' which on 

 investigation may be something tried long ago, and 

 occasionally with success, or it may be a plant or a 

 chemical preparation w^hich under certain circumstances 

 effects a cure, but none of which will stand the above 

 definition of antidote. Each new attempt is announced as 

 ' an antidote ' nevertheless. Dr. Arthur Stradling was 



^ Thanatcfhidia of India. 



