786 PASSIVE IMMUNIZATION SERUM THERAPY 



SERUM TREATMENT OF SNAKE-BITES 



The nature of snake venom is discussed in Chapter VII, and the 

 method of preparing antivenomous serum is described in Chapter XIV. 

 Calmette's antivenene for cobra venom is useful in the treatment of 

 cobra envenomation, but is not serviceable for the treatment of other 

 snake-bites, as shown by Martin for Australian serpents and by McFar- 

 land for American snakes. In the venoms of our snakes, as, for example, 

 the rattlesnake, copper-head, and moccasin, the poison is essentially 

 locally destructive, the respiratory poison being of secondary impor- 

 tance. McFarland failed to immunize horses against this locally de- 

 structive poison. Later Noguchi and Madsden succeeded in producing 

 an antiserum, prepared by immunizing horses with venom after the 

 toxophorous groups of the molecules had been destroyed, capable of 

 neutralizing the hemorrhagin of the Crotalus venom. 



The serums of Calmette, Noguchi, and others are useful in the treat- 

 ment of their respective envenomations, but aside from India, Brazil, 

 and a few other reptile-infested countries, as well as in zoological gardens 

 and laboratories where snakes are kept, the serums have a very limited 

 sphere of usefulness. 



SERUM TREATMENT OF HAY-FEVER 



The nature of pollen toxin has been discussed in Chapter VII, and the 

 preparation of antitoxin in Chapter XIV. 



Dunbar has prepared an antitoxin for certain pollen; this may be 

 obtained commercially. The method of administration consists in 

 dropping the serum into the eyes and sniffing it into the nose at the onset 

 of an attack. It is necessary for the patient to carry the serum and 

 dropper about, as the effects produced are of short duration, and the 

 patient is subject to repeated reinfections. Subcutaneous injections 

 are not advisable, as considerable local edema is produced, and the 

 amount of protection afforded is uncertain. 



Many observers, as, for example, Semon, 1 McBride, 2 Knight, 3 

 Throst, 4 Weichardt, 5 and others, report that the serum affords a tem- 

 porary relief which is grateful to the patient, but which cannot be said 

 to be curative of the disease. In some instances it fails altogether, and 

 in these it is reasonable to assume that the antitoxin has not been pre- 

 pared from the particular pollen that infected the patient. An intoler- 

 ance to the serum may be excited. 



1 Brit. Med. Jour., 1903, ii, 123, 220. 2 Edin. Med. Jour., 1903, ii, 7. 



3 Med. Record, March 10, 1906. 



4 Munch, med. Wochenschr., June 9, 1903. 



5 Centralbl. f. Bakt., Abst., 1906, xxxviii, 493. 



