October 24, 1895] 



NATURE 



621 



writer's own experiments, so far at least, do not lend 

 much support to them. So long, however, as the whole 

 question of this new treatment, striking though it is in 

 its results, is still a mystery to us, we cannot afford to \ 

 push aside observations because they seem improbable, 

 or because they are contradictory. 



Calmette asserts also that the fresh serum of Naja 

 triptidians (a species of cobra) possesses to some degree 

 at least immunising properties, and, as we shall see, 

 Fraser ' bears him out in this, by stating that fresh 

 serum of poisonous snakes possesses strong antitoxic 

 and protective properties, not only against their own 

 venom, but also against that of other species. D. D. 

 Cunningham - and the writer,-' however, in India, in- 

 variably failed to obtain antitoxic or immunising effects 

 with cobra blood or serum, although the writer succeeded 

 in keeping the effects of cobra poison in abeyance by 

 means of the blood (or serum) of the Vuntnus Benga- 

 Icnsis, a large lizard which is naturally strongly resistant 

 against cobra poison. 



These are the chief results obtained by Calmette, and 

 knowing the difficulties of working with such deadly 

 poison as cobra poison venom is, and the innumerable 

 failures which accompany it, the writer is able ;o appre- 

 ciate the success of the French author, all the more since 

 he himself failed while working on the same lines where 

 to succeed seemed simply a matter of course. Recently 

 these French observations have received entire confirma- 

 tion in their leading points by Prof Fraser of Edinburgh, 

 and the writer may be forgiven for stating here that 

 though he took up the control of Calmette's work with 

 strong bias against the latter, he felt himself forced, 

 already before Fraser's communications appeared, to 

 acknowledge the correctness of the work done at 

 Pasteur's Institute, so far as the antitoxic and immunising 

 properties against cobra poison of serum obtained from 

 animals treated with that poison are concerned. He has 

 not, however, convinced himself that hypochloride of 

 calcium can immunise animals, or lead to the formation 

 of an antitoxic serum. Frasers contributions, though 

 merely confirmatory, are of great importance, since they 

 contain unquestionable proof of the truth of what must 

 have appeared to all, except a few shrieking "zoophilists,'' 

 to be striking and surprising re\elations. The credit, 

 however, of the discovery of a cure for snake-bite— in the 

 laboratory at least belongs solely to France. Having 

 discussed Calmette's work more fully, we can speak of 

 Frasers experiments in a few words ; but thereby we do 

 not wish to detract in any way from the merit which 

 characterises his researches. 



Fraser-* worked with venom obtained from the Indian 

 cobra, three species of rattlesnakes {Crotalus horridus, C. 

 adaiiiantcus^ and C. durissus), the copper-head {Trigflito- 

 cephalus co/i/or/iix), the .Australian black and brown 

 snakes, and an unidentified Diciiuitia (Pscudccliis porphy- 

 riacus and Diciiniiin si/pera'/iosa), the African puff-adder, 

 night adder, yellow cobra, and " rinkas " ( Vipcra arictans, 

 Aspidiliips lu/>ri(iix, Nnjn /lajc, Sepcdon hcriiKichatcs). 

 He immunised his animals by the usual method of 

 minimal subcutaneous inoculations, or by feeding, against 

 the venoms of some of the snakes mentioned, and then 

 established Ux) the strong specific antidotal properties of 

 the scrum of these vaccinated animals against the poison 

 with which they had been vaccinated, and (/') the vicarious 

 antidotal properties against the other poisons. This 

 serum he obtained in a dry, pulvcrisable condition with- 

 out any appreciable loss of antidotal power ; but we can 

 hardly forgive him the hybrid and barbaric name " anti- 

 venene" which he applies to it. He confirms Calmette's 

 results in almost every point, so that there is no longer 



^ Lancet, .\ugust lo, 1895, p. 376, and Brit. Med, Journal, Aug. 17, 1895. 



'•^ Private communication. 



^ Journal of Physiology, 1892, vol. xiii. Nos. 3 and 4, p. 288. 



^ British .\[etlical Journal, 1895, June 15, p. 1309-1312. 



NO. 1356, VOL. 52] 



any doubt left as to possibility of a successful cure against 

 snakebite, especially as, by both observers, the curative 

 injection was shown to be efficacious when the symptoms 

 of intoxication had already set in, and as the experi- 

 mental animals used were highly susceptible to the 

 poisonous action of serpents' venoms, while man is weight 

 for weight much less sensitive than a guinea-pig or a 

 rabbit. True, F"raser has generally worked with com- 

 paratively small lethal doses ; this possible objection is, 

 however, met by Calmette's results, which were obtained 

 with much larger doses, and which therefore allow us to 

 judge favourably of the practical application of the serum 

 treatment. The final verdict must, of course, depend on 

 the success or failure following the use of the serum in 

 cases of snake-bite, and it must be remembered that, 

 striking though our laboratory' results are with tetanus 

 antitoxine, so far the success obtained with acute cases 

 of tetanus in man is disappointingly small, as the 

 writer has shown elsewhere.' ^'et here we have a 

 rational method of treatment, and the promise of almost 

 certain success ; we must now look for facilities and 

 opportunities of tr)-ing the cure. In France they have 

 already begun to manufacture this antitoxic serum in 

 larger quantity, and Calmette writes that he has im- 

 munised a horse, and is ready to supply the remedy : 

 and Fraser also has larger animals under treatment. 

 No doubt India will not delay in carrying out the 

 necessary arrangements for procuring what, after all, will 

 be an imperial benefit. 



The vicarious action of the immunising venom-serum is- 

 surprising, and may find an explanation in the similarity 

 of the physiological action of the various poisons used. 

 They are all poisons which cause death by acting on the 

 central nervous system, especially the medulla, the animal 

 dying from respiratory failure with salivation, retching, 

 i&c. Audit is quite possible that chemically siinilar poisons 

 which, according to their action on the animal body, be- 

 long to one physiological group, have the same antidote. 

 It would therefore be interesting to test the antitoxic cobra- 

 serum on the poison of the Daboia, which, according 

 to Wall, Cunningham, and others, differs essentially in 

 its physiological action ; for whereas cobra, crotalus, and 

 viper venoms are paralysing, medullary poisons, the 

 poison of Russell's viper produces very varying symptoms, 

 in some cases convulsions, in others paralysis and 

 asphyxia, in yet others violent convulsions followed by 

 paralysis. Daboia venom undoubtedly contains a sub- 

 stance capable of producing the most violent convulsions, 

 especially in birds, their occurrence depending on the 

 size of the animal and on the amount of poison injected. 

 It would indeed be more than a surprising revelation, if a 

 serum which is capable of acting as an antidote to a 

 paralysing toxine were also capable of neutralising the 

 effects of a toxine of opposite physiological action. 



The vicarious antidotal action of venom-serum must 

 appear all the stranger and more contradictory if we re- 

 member that not all poisonous snakes are "giftfest'against 

 the poisons of other different species. Waddell - has 

 shown that the venom is neither a poison to the snake itself 

 nor to members of its own species, but that cobra poison 

 is fatal to some, if not perhaps to all, poisonous snakes. 

 It will certainly kill the Trimcresurus crythrurus, and in 

 the writer's experience also the crotalus, while according 

 to Fayrer the Biiiigants readily falls a victim to the 

 bite of a cobra. This being so, why should the antitoxic 

 serum of an animal immunised against cobra-poison 

 be active against rattlesnake venom, when in an experi- 

 ment recently performed by the writer, a strong and 

 healthy crotalus succumbed to five milligrammes of cobra 

 venom ? Lastly some writers, Fraser included, assume 

 that the immunity of poisonous snakes against their own 



1 Xf<//<r<i/CAw«/V&, May 1895. 



2 " Scientific Memoirs by Medical Officers of the .\rmy of India," 1889,. 

 iv. p. 59. 



