570 



NA TURE 



[April i6, 1896 



lished in 1844, gives a description of the performances by 

 members of a sect of snake-charmers, called the Eisowy, who 

 freely handled, and allowed themselves to be bitten by serpents 

 proved to be venomous by a rapidly fatal experiment performed 

 on a fowl. At the termination of the exhibition, the Eisowy, 

 apparently as a usual part of the performance, "commenced 

 eating or rather chewing" a poisonous snake, " which, writhing 

 with pain (to quote Mr. Hay's words), bit him in the neck and 

 hands until it was actually destroyed by the Eisowy's teeth." 

 He states that, on another occasion, at Tangier, a young Moor, 

 who was witnessing the performances of a snake-charmer, 

 ridiculed his exhibition as an imposture, and having been dared 

 by the Eisowy to touch one of the serpents, the lad did so, was 

 bitten by one of them, and shortly afterwards expired. In 

 connection with my subject, a special interest is attached to the 

 account given by Mr. Drummond Hay, and repeated in its 

 main features by Quedenfeldt in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie 

 of 1886, of the origin of this Eisowy sect, and of the immunity 

 which they claim. The founder, Seedna Eiser, was being 

 followed through the desert of Soos by a great multitude, who, 

 becoming hungry, clamoured for bread. On this, Seedna Eiser 

 became enraged, and turning upon them he uttered a common 

 Arabic curse, " Kool sim," which means "eat poison." So 

 great was their faith in the teaching of the saint, that they acted 

 upon the literal interpretation of his words, and thereafter ate 

 venomous snakes and reptiles ; and from that time they them- 

 selves and their descendants have been immune against serpents' 

 bites (p. 65). 



Dr. Honigberger, in his "Thirty-five Years in the East," 

 published in 1852, relates the incident of a faqueer who was 

 bitten by a serpent, and to whom he at once sent medicines 

 which he judged likely to prevent the ill-effects of the venom. 

 " On the same afternoon," he writes, " I visited him and found 

 him in good spirits. I at first attributed the circumstance to the 

 effect produced by the remedies I had sent him, but was sur- 

 prised on hearing that he had not taken them, he being of 

 opinion that the venom of the serpent was incapable of affecting 

 him, inasmuch as he had often been bitten by serpents without 

 having sustained any injury." On the suggestion of the faqueer, 

 the same serpent, which had been caught and retained, was 

 allowed to bite him again, and afterwards to bite a fowl. This 

 fowl was taken home by Dr. Honigberger, and he found it dead 

 on the following morning, ' ' although the faqueer, who was bitten 

 first, was quite well" (p. 135). 



Nicholson, in his work on "Indian Snakes" (1875), and 

 Richardson, in his "Landmarks of Snake-poison Literature" 

 {1885), also narrate instances, the latter with obvious disbelief in 

 their reality, suggesting that snake-charmers may possess some 

 means for protecting themselves against the bites of venomous 

 serpents. 



Many other examples might be quoted in which this sug- 

 gestion is made. The attention which has been drawn to the 

 subject during the last twelve months has prompted the publica- 

 tion of other instances, such as that related by Dr. Bawa, of a 

 Tamil snake-charmer who, in the course of his performances, 

 was bitten by a cobra without any effect, while an onlooker, 

 foolishly repeating the performance, was bitten by the same 

 cobra, and died in three hours ; and the description given by 

 M. D'Abbadie, in a recent issue of the Coniptes reiidics, of the 

 custom, recently prevailing at Mozambique, of inoculating with 

 serpents' venom, under the firm conviction that protection is 

 thereby produced against the effects of serpents' bites. 



It may be instructive to associate with these statements the 

 belief that venomous serpents are themselves protected against 

 the effects of bites inflicted upon them by individuals both of 

 their own and of other species. On mere anatomical grounds, it 

 is difficult to understand how serpents could escape the ab- 

 sorption of their own venom through mucous surfaces^ even 

 admitting that absorption of venom does not occur in normal 

 conditions of these surfaces. Venom must, however, be so 

 frequently introduced into their bodies, in situations where 

 absorption could not fail to occur, by the bites inflicted upon 

 them by other serpents, that the conclusion seems inevitable 

 that they possess some protective quality, without which, 

 probably, no venomous serpents would now be in existence. 

 Not only have many general observations been made in favour 

 of this belief, but it has been supported by direct experiments, 

 such as those made by Fontana of Tuscany more than a cen- 

 tury ago, and by Guyon, Lacerda, Waddell, Kaufmann, and 

 Sir Joseph Fayrer. 



NO. I 38 I, VOL. 53] 



This, and other evidence, pointing to the existence of pro- 

 tection against venom, not only in serpents themselves, but 

 also, in certain exceptional circumstances, in human beings, 

 several years ago originated a wish to investigate the matter. 

 It was obviously suggested that if protection occurs, it must be 

 caused by some direct result of the absorption of venom ; and, 

 therefore, that its existence could be proved or disproved by 

 experiment. In the former event, the first steps would already 

 have been taken to obtain, by further experiments, results likely 

 to be of value in the treatment of poisoning by serpents' venom, 

 and, indeed, likely to be of suggestive importance in even the 

 wider field of general therapeutics. 



The general plan to be followed in the first stages of the 

 investigation was obviously suggested by some of the statements 

 I have reproduced ; for they indicate that individuals might 

 become accustomed to, or protected against the effects of ser- 

 pents' bites, by the introduction into their bodies of a succession 

 of doses of venom, no one of which, necessarily, at the 

 beginning of the process was so large as the minimum-lethal. A 

 consideration also of the facts, proving the possession of pro- 

 tection on the part of venomous serpents themselves, indicated 

 the same plan of procedure ; for, equally obviously, these serpents, 

 from an early period of their existence, must absorb venom from 

 their own gradually-developing poison-glands, until, in the course 

 of time, they had acquired sufficient protection to remain un- 

 affected by the larger quantities which the now fully-developed 

 glands would introduce into their bodies. 



My first supplies of cobra venom were obtained in 1869, from 

 the late Dr. Shortt, of Madras, and in 1879 from Surgeon- 

 Colonel Moir, of Meerut. They were in very small quantity, 

 but with them I was able to satisfy myself that, by a succession 

 of minute doses, animals became able to receive the minimum- 

 lethal dose without any distinct injury. At this point, however, 

 the supply of venom failed, and the observations could not then 

 be carried further. It became evident that until large quantities 

 of venom had been obtained, definite results could not be 

 hoped for. 



It was not until several years afterwards that a sufficient supply 

 had been gradually accumulated, by further small quantities 

 received from Sir Joseph Fayrer, the Thakore of Gondal, and 

 Dr. Phillips ; and by larger quantities from Sir William Mac- 

 kinnon, Director-General of the Army Medical Department, 

 and especially from Surgeon-Colonel Cunningham, of Calcutta, 

 who for many years has been engaged with much success in the 

 study of venoms and their antidotes. Within the last few 

 months, and subsequently to the publication of some of the 

 experimental results which had by this time been obtained, the 

 India Office has also placed at my disposal a considerable quan- 

 tity of venom, which had been collected by Dr. Hankin, of Agra, 

 at the request of Dr. Cleghoorn, Surgeon-General with the 

 Government of India. 



But, besides these specimens of the venom of the cobra of 

 India, I have also been fortunate in obtaining specimens of 

 venoms from other parts of the world. 



From America, Dr. Weir Mitchell, of Philadelphia — whose 

 work on the chemistry and physiology of serpents' venom con- 

 stitutes the great advance of the century on the venom of viperine 

 serpents — has supplied me with the venom of three species oi 

 rattlesnakes, viz. Crotahis horridiis, C. adanianteiis , and C. 

 durristis, and also with a specimen of the venom of the Copper 

 Head ( Trigonocephalus contortrix). 



From Australia, Dr. Thomas Bancroft, of Brisbane, has at 

 various times sent specimens of the venoms of the black snake 

 {Pseudechis porphyriaats), the brown snake {Diemenia super- 

 ciliosa), and of a large unidentified snake of the Diamantina 

 district of Queensland (probably a new species of Diemenia). 



From Africa, the kindness of Mr. Andrew Smith, a dis- 

 tinguished naturalist of Cape Town, of Dr. Brook, of the 

 Orange Free States, and of Dr. John Murray and Mr. Van 

 Putten, of Cape Colony, has placed at my disposal small quan- 

 tities of the venom of the puff" adder ( Viper a arietans), the 

 night adder {Aspidelaps btbriciis), the yellow cobra {Naja haie), 

 and the "Ring Hals Slang" or " Rinkas " {Sepedon hama- 

 chates). 



In the meantime, however, the results of experiments on the 

 inoculation of the toxines of diseases, as well as of proteid 

 toxines of vegetable origin, had suggested to several observers that 

 serpents' venom, because of its chemical analogies with several of 

 these substances, might possibly be found capable, like them, of 

 producing immunity against the effects of poisonous doses ; and 



