VII. SNAKE VENOMS AND THEIR ANTISERA 



Despite the fact that venomous serpents have 

 excited the fear and interest of mankind for centuries 

 it is only very recently that we have come to know 

 anything definite about their poisons. This is 

 perhaps in part due to the fact that Europe possesses 

 but few poisonous snakes, and so offered little 

 material for study. Some idea of the importance 

 of the subject for certain countries, however, can be 

 seen when it is stated that in India more than 

 20,000 persons annually die from the bite of the 

 hooded cobra. It was quite natural, therefore, that 

 one of the earliest modern researches into the 

 nature of snake venom, that of Calmette, 1 should 

 have come from that country. This author also 

 found that he could produce an antitoxic serum by 

 injecting animals with the snake venom. 



The Venoms. Our present knowledge of snake 

 venoms and their antisera is due largely to the 

 researches of Flexner and Noguchi 2 and of Kyes 

 and Sachs. 3 The venoms of different snakes vary 



1 Calmette, Annal. Inst. Pasteur, Vol. vi, 1892; Comptes 

 rend. Soc. Biol., 1894. 



2 Flexner and Noguchi, Journal Exp. Medicine, 1902, et seq. 



3 Kyes and Sachs. See in Collected Studies on Immunity, 

 Ehrlich, New York, 1906. 



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