132 Immunity 



live in action upon the tissues with which it came into direct 

 contact, the other stable in nature, was death-dealing 

 through its action upon the respiratory centers. By heat- 

 ing the venoms and thus destroying the irritative principle, 

 he was able to immunize animals against the other, which 

 he looked upon as the important element of the venom. 

 The immunized animals furnished an anti-serum, which 

 entirely annulled the effect of the toxin (modified venom) 

 used in treating them. This serum was found to protect 

 rabbits and other animals against both modified and un- 

 modified cobra venom, and was used successfully in the 

 treatment of a number of human beings that had been bitten 

 by cobras. Calmette, however, drew the erroneous conclu- 

 sion that because in most venoms studied, he was able to 

 find a larger or smaller proportion of the respiratory poison, 

 it constituted the essential element of the venom, and that 

 to be antagonized. Arguing from this standpoint, he rec- 

 ommended his antivenene in all cases of snake-bite, regard- 

 less of the variety of serpent. C. J. Martin and others 

 showed that Calmette was wrong in his deductions, and 

 that his antivenene was of very doubtful benefit in the treat- 

 ment of the bites of the Australian serpents, and my own ex- 

 periments showed it to be of doubtful value in the treat- 

 ment of the bites of the American snakes. In the venoms 

 of our snakes the rattlesnake, copper-head, and moccasin 

 the poison is essentially locally destructive in action, the 

 fatal influence upon the respiratory centers being of second- 

 ary importance, fatalities from snake-bite being rare in the 

 United States. Although I made many attempts to im- 

 munize horses against this locally destructive substance, 

 which has since been carefully studied by Flexner and No- 

 guchi, I was unable to do so. Noguchi, however, applied 

 Khrlich's principle to the investigation, destroyed the tox- 

 ophorous group of the venom molecules, and succeeded in 

 producing an anti-serum useful in antagonizing the active 

 principle hemorrhagin of the Crotalus venom. 



Antivenene is useful in the treatment of cobra invenoma- 

 tion, as Calmette has shown by cases treated in his own 

 laboratory. The serums of Noguchi and others are equally 

 useful in their respective invenomations, but the opportunity 

 for successfully employing antivenenes is very small. Few 

 persons are bitten in places and at times where the remedy 

 is at hand, and the effects of venoms of all kinds are so rapid 

 that immediate treatment is required. In India and a few 



