GARDEN OF SERPENTS — POZZI. 443 



The pathological physiology of venom poisoning has become very 

 Well known through the researches of Calmette and V. Brazil. The 

 poisoning resulting from the bite of a Bothrops is hemorrhagic in nature. 

 After a bite there occurs a decomposition of the blood which escapes 

 from the capillaries, causing profuse hemorrhage in the subcutaneous 

 and submucous tissues, accompanied by acute congestion of the liver, 

 kidneys, and brain. It is a sort of acute purpura. The Crotalus 

 venom, on the contrary, is a paralyzing poison. It produces bulbar 

 paralysis with disturbances of the respiration, the vision, and the 

 circulation. Local reaction at the seat of the wound is absent or 

 extremely slight. Death of the victim, if a man, results after a vari- 

 able time, generally about 24 hours. 



Vital Brazil has made elaborate studies of the effects of venoms 

 upon animals. The poison of the Crotalus terrijicus kills a pigeon 

 when one one-thousandth of a milligram is injected into its veins. 

 The fatal doses for other venoms vary slightly. 



I will now describe in a few words the preparation of the antivenom 

 serum at Butantan. 



The serum prepared at Lille by Dr. Calmette has little efficacy in 

 Brazil. Indeed, he himself says in his remarkable book, Upon 

 Venoms, "For each venom there is a corresponding serum." Since 

 the serum of the institution at Lille is almost wholly prepared with 

 the venom of Asiatic snakes, although excellent for counteracting 

 the bites of European vipers, it is useless against the bites of the 

 Brazilian Bothrops or Crotalus. Accordingly Dr. Vital Brazil has 

 prepared two specific serums, one anticrotalic, the other antibothropic, 

 each having, in small doses, a particular efficacy against the bites 

 of the corresponding snakes. But as it is rare that the kind of snake 

 producing a bite is known, it was important to have also a polyvalent 

 serum, that is one equally active against all venoms. Such a serum 

 Dr. Brazil has made. 



The animal used to furnish the antitoxic serum is the horse. A 

 young and healthy animal is taken, free from any disease, and 

 particularly from glanders. Horses are very sensitive to the venom 

 from snakes. At first a minimum does is injected, five one-hundreths 

 of a milligram; then the does is increased. The injections are 

 repeated every five or six days; as soon as the animal seems to 

 suffer or to lose weight the injections are stopped. It is a curious 

 fact that as soon as the immunization is complete the animal seems 

 to thrive from the absorption of the poison; it grows fat, its weight 

 increases. And yet further, a horse in the process of immunization, 

 if the injections are stopped, pines away somewhat as does a morphio- 

 maniac when the latter is deprived of his habitual poison. The 

 horse has become, in fact, a seromaniac. 



