268 VENOMS 
Naja is able to inoculate in a single bite), would only require, 
in order to escape death, to receive the quantity of antivenomous 
serum sufficient to neutralise the portion of venom in excess of 
the amount that he could tolerate without dying. 
Let us suppose, for the sake of example, that the man of 60 
kilogrammes can withstand intoxication by 14 milligrammes of 
Naja-venom. It follows that, in the case with which we are 
dealing, we must inject sufficient serum to neutralise 20—14 (=6) 
milligrammes of venom; that is to say, the injection of serum 
being made immediately after the bite, 6 c.c., if the serum employed 
neutralises in vitro 1 milligramme of venom per cubic centimetre. 
Of course, if the serum is more powerful, less of it will be 
necessary, while more will be required if the remedy is applied 
later, or if the quantity of venom inoculated by the snake is 
supposed to have been greater. 
For this reason, in practice, but very little serum is usually 
necessary in order to augment the natural resistance of a man 
of average weight or of a large animal; it is sufficient in most 
cases to give an injection of 10 or 20 c.c. in order to cure human 
beings who have been bitten. The clinical proof of this is, more- 
over, to be found in the cases, already very numerous, that have 
been published in the course of the last few years in the scientific 
journals of all countries. I have gathered together a few of these 
in the concluding pages of this book, and I would beg the reader 
to be good enough to refer to them. 
