390 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
biting, drag the loose skin of the bitten part so much that most 
of the venom will be shed perhaps half an inch from the site 
of the punctures. So, to guard against these eventualities, be 
careful always to scarify freely so that the permanganate will 
come into contact with all the venom. ; 
THE SERUM TREATMENT FOR SNAKE BITE. RESULTS OF 
SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTATION. 
Failing to find any antidote to snake bite amongst known 
medicines, either vegetable or mineral, men of science began 
investigations in another direction. Quite independent of each 
other, Doctors Fayrer and Calmette conducted a series of experi- 
ments with snake venom. 
Animals, preferably horses, were injected with minute doses 
of Cobra venom, and on the symptoms of poisoning subsiding, a 
larger dose would be injected. This immunizing process was 
carried on from one to two years, the dosage being progressively 
increased until 50 to 200 fatal doses could be injected at one 
dose without any apparent harmful effect. Some of the blood 
of the horses was then withdrawn, the serum separated and 
injected into animals bitten by snakes of the same species to 
the venom of which the horses had been rendered immune. 
The effect was magical, for almost instantly the venom was 
neutralized, the symptoms subsided, and the animals recovered. 
It is well known in medical science that any poison, however 
potent, if taken into the human body in.carefully graduated 
doses, confers a peculiar mysterious tolerance to that particular 
poison. The same holds good with all medicinal substances. 
After repeated dosage the ordinary prescribed quantities fail 
to have the desired effect. An acquaintance of mine was a 
victim of the opium habit, and took sufficient opium in the 
course of the day to kill twenty men not accustomed to its use. 
Inveterate smokers will take into their bodies daily sufficient 
nicotine and other tobacco poisons to kill off half a dozen non- 
smokers. Naturally, however, if poisonous drugs be persistently 
introduced into the body, they, in time, will shatter the toughest 
constitution. Two drops of the oil from a tobacco pipe placed 
upon a dog’s tongue will kill it within one minute. A few 
specks of strychnine will have the same effect. Tobacco oil 
