118 Professor Thomas B. Fraser [March 20, 



A perfectly dry and easily pulverisable solid is thus obtained 

 from which a normal serum can readily be prepared as required, by 

 dissolving a definite quantity of the dry serum in a definite quantity 

 of water. The dry substance is on the average equivalent to about 

 one-tenth of the weight of the liquid serum. I have found that, 

 without any special precautions, it retains its antidotal power unim- 

 paired for at least a year, and it is probable that it may be kept 

 unchanged for an unlimited period of time. 



To this antidotal serum, whether in the dry form or in solution, 

 I have given the name " Antivenene," a name which, notwithstanding 

 etymological objections, has the advantages of brevity and freedom 

 from ambiguity. 



The experiments now to be described were made with antivenene 

 derived from a horse which had last received a dose of cobra venom 

 estimated to be twenty times the minimum-lethal. On some previous 

 occasions I have stated the results of observations on the antidotal 

 value of the blood-serum of rabbits which had last received thirty 

 and fifty times the minimum-lethal, respectively. The antivenene 

 obtained from cats and white rats has also been examined. The 

 special interest, however, is attached to antivenene derived from the 

 horse, that it is more likely than any others to be used in the treat- 

 ment of snake-bite in man. 



The experiments were so planned as to obtain in difiierent con- 

 ditions of administration as exact a definition as possible of the 

 antidotal power of the antivenene. In the meantime, four series of 

 experiments have been undertaken on rabbits. In one series the 

 venom was mixed outside of the body with the antivenene, and 

 immediately^ thereafter the mixture was injected under the skin of 

 the animal ; in the second series the venom and antivenene were 

 almost simultaneously injected into opposite sides of the body ; in 

 the third series the antivenene was injected some considerable time 

 before the venom ; and in the fourth series the venom was first 

 injected, and thirty minutes afterwards the antivenene. 



In the experiments of the first series, the doses of cobra venom 

 administered were the minimum- lethal, one-and-a-half the minimum 

 lethal, twice, thrice, four times, five times, eight times and ten times 

 the minimum-lethal. In the case of each dose of venom, experiments 

 were made with difterent quantities of antivenene, until the smallest 

 quantity required to prevent death was discovered. In order to 

 render it certain, in this and in the other series, that a lethal dose 

 had been administered in the experiments with the so-called minimum- 

 lethal, the minimum-lethal indicated by previous experiments was 

 not used, but instead of it a slightly larger dose ( • 00025 instead of 

 • 00024 gramme per kilogramme). 



When this certainly lethal dose, capable of producing death in 

 three or four hours, was mixed with the antivenene, and the mixture 

 injected two minutes afterwards, under the skin, it was found that 

 so small quantities were sufficient to prevent death as '001 c.c, 



