OTHER EXPERIMENTS. 415 



Bitten and injected with Anti-Venene. 



Mr. Norsworthy caught an adult female Puff Adder, which 

 was forced to bite the hind legs of an old goat at 11 a.m. Four 

 full bites were given. The snake was allowed to retain its hold 

 and firmly grip and worry the bitten parts. 



Two bottles of anti-venene serum were then injected in 

 several places under the skin of the inner parts of the legs and 

 between the shoulders. Each bottle of serum contained nearly 

 an ounce, viz. 25 c.c. Shortly after being bitten, the leg swelled 

 slightly. After six hours the leg swelled somewhat more and 

 the sites of the bites looked inflamed. The goat seemed in its 

 usual health and continued so. After eight or nine hours, the 

 swelling began to subside. There was no sign of haemorrhage 

 under the skin. The goat made a complete recovery. Mr. 

 Norsworthy informs me that several prominent farmers witnessed 

 these experiments, and all agreed that the bites inflicted were 

 full and complete ones. In fact, Mr. Norsworthy complained 

 that they were too exacting. 



A freshly caught adult Puff Adder is capable of injecting at 

 least ten drops of venom at a single bite. When a snake is in a 

 state of extreme anger, as was the case with the one which bit 

 the goat, the glands manufacture venom at an exceedingly 

 rapid rate, therefore it is fairly safe to assume that the snake 

 injected ten to fifteen drops of venom into the goat, four of 

 which were sufficient to kill it. 



Mr. E. Burls, a well-known farmer who witnessed the experi- 

 ment and who is the owner of the goat, writes to Mr. Norsworthy 

 as follows : — " The goat has quite recovered. I defy any one to 

 detect anything wrong with her. You can safely tell FitzSimons 

 that the serum cured her. She had a rough time of it, but that 

 was, I believe, owing to her having four bites, and the broken 

 teeth at the fourth bite were not taken out." 



Other Experiments. 



I have made numbers of experiments with anti-venomous 

 serum. This serum is polyvalent, and is made by immunizing 

 horses and mules to the mixed venom of African snakes. It is 

 equally strong in its action against the venoms of the Cobra and 

 Adder groups of snakes. 



I found that if a Puff Adder was allowed to deliver one full 



