POISONS AND THEIR PREVENTION 201 



the anti-toxins which have been elaborated, as, 

 for example, anti-venomous serum, for, to be 

 worthy of such rank, a substance must be 

 capable of wielding both protective and curative 

 powers. 



But, although eel serum may under certain 

 conditions protect from the lethal action of serpent 

 venom, eels are not themselves under ordinary 

 circumstances endowed with any power to with- 

 stand the influence of this poison, for a good-sized 

 eel will succumb to a dose of venom which is 

 sufficient to kill a guinea-pig. 



Considerable interest is attached to the fact that 

 - anti-venomous serum not only acts as an anti- 

 toxin towards serpent venom, but also towards 

 a poison of quite a different character, such as 

 that present in the normal blood of eels, for this 

 fact tends to confirm the view upheld by some 

 authorities, that specific toxins do not necessarily 

 only yield to specific anti-toxins, and that a par- 

 ticular anti-toxin may act as such towards divers 

 toxins of varied origin and character. Calmette 

 has brought this point out very clearly in his 

 later investigations on the vegetable poison abrine, 

 a very powerful toxin, furnished by the active 

 principle of the seeds or beans of a leguminous 

 plant common in India and South America, and 

 frequently used, as already mentioned, by the 



