276 around the world via india. 



calmette's antivenene. 



Calmette of Lille is the discoverer of antivenene. 

 Captain Lamb, I.M.S., 1 who has made a very careful 

 study of the therapeutic value of this agent in the treat- 

 ment of bites of poisonous snakes has come to the con- 

 clusion that antivenene prepared from the venom of 

 one genus of snake is curative only in the treatment of 

 bites inflicted by that genus and no other, a position 

 fully endorsed by Lieut.-Col. Bannerman. 2 Convincing 

 experimental research and a large clinical experience 

 combine to prove that the antivenene prepared from 

 the cobra venom is, if used in time, a specific for cobra 

 bites, but useless in the treatment of bites of the viper. 

 Reasoning from this standpoint, it seems to me that 

 in antivenene prepared from the venom of our rattle- 

 snake ought to prove successful in the treatment of 

 bites inflicted by this genus of snakes. 



Only one accident has so far occurred in the Parel 

 Laboratory. A coolie in handling a cobra struck one 

 of his thmubs against one of the fangs. Antivenene 

 of doubtful age was used at once, but proved useless 

 in warding off the immediate symptoms provoked by 

 the poison. Great prostration set in, he became 

 paralyzed in the lower limbs and unconscious. The 

 threatening symptoms disappeared promptly and in 

 three hours the patient was able to walk to his house. 

 Gangrene of the end of the thumb, however, occurred, 

 which proved the intensity of the local toxic action 

 of the cobra venom. 



Marseilles, France, Oct. 3, 1904. 



1. Snake Venooms : Their riiysiological Action and Antidote, 

 Journal Bombay Natural History Society, p. 220, vol. xiv. 



2. The Use of Calmette's Antivenene* in Snakebites in Indiaa, 

 Journal Bombay Natural Histdry Societv, vol. xv. 



