200 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



remarkable in their degree, but its curative powers, 

 a much more difficult property to establish in 

 a substance, are extraordinarily intense, as may be 

 gathered from the following example. Four rabbits 

 were inoculated with a quantity of venom calcu- 

 lated to destroy them in the space of two hours ; 

 one of these four animals was abandoned to its 

 fate, but the other three received, practically at 

 the eleventh hour, viz. just fifteen minutes before 

 the expiration of the calculated two hours' respite, 

 an intravenous injection of a small quantity of 

 anti-venomous serum, only amounting to one four- 

 hundredth part of the weight of each animal 

 respectively. The rabbit which received only the 

 venom died at the end of two hours, whilst the 

 other three remained in perfect health. 



But although eel serum can be persuaded to 

 part with its poisonous character and even exer- 

 cise protective powers over otherwise doomed 

 victims, it is not able to stretch forth a healing 

 hand to the afflicted, for, when once the poison 

 has been introduced, whether it be eel or viper 

 blood, or the venom of snakes, it is absolutely 

 powerless to mitigate or stop in any way the 

 deadly progress of the toxin. Thus whilst eel 

 blood may acquire protective properties it cannot 

 acquire curative properties, and, therefore, treated 

 eel serum cannot be legitimately enrolled with 



