120 



Professor Thomas B. Eraser 



[March 20, 



doses of twice the minimum-lethal and upwards cannot, however, be 

 carried down to the minimum-lethal dose. The quantity of anti- 

 venene required to prevent death from this dose is much less than 

 might have been anticipated when the results of experiments with 

 larger doses are considered. Thus, it appears that while * 35 c.c. of 

 antivenene per kilogramme is required to prevent death from twice 

 the minimum-lethal of venom, the minute quantity of the l/2500th 

 of a c.c, or nearly 1000 times less ("0004 as compared with '35 c.c), 

 is sufficient to prevent death from a little more than the minimum- 

 lethal dose of venom. It is apparent that this minute quantity of 

 antivenene does not render inert the whole of the minimum-lethal 

 dose. All that is required, in order that the minimum-lethal dose 



a 



■7i 



Fig. 2. 



^pttvenene. 



should not produce death, being that only a minute portion of it 

 should be rendered inert ; for, if this dose be the actual minimum- 

 lethal, the rendering inert of any portion of it, however minute, will 

 prevent the remainder from causing death. 



In the second series, experiments with the antivenene of the horse 

 have been completed only with one-and-a-half the minimum-lethal 

 dose of venom. When this dose was injected into the subcutaneous 

 tissues of one side of the body, and, immediately thereafter, a dose 

 of antivenene into the subcutaneous tissues of the opposite side, it 

 was found that antivenene in doses of 3 c.c and 3 * 3 c.c. per kilo- 

 gramme failed to prevent death, but that 3*5 c.c. and 3*6 c.c. per 

 kilogramme were able to do so. 



In the third series, experiments have been made with the minimum- 



