18 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



the Australian colubrine species which have been investigated, is of the 

 greatest interest and importance. For a long time no satisfactory 

 explanation of the phenomenon was forthctming. It has now, however, 

 been definitely proved that the coagulation which takes place is due to 

 the action of a katalyst or ferment, which in some way or other brings 

 about the formation of fibrin, a phenomenon analogous to the foimation 

 of curd which takes places on the addition of rennet to milk. 



Another point which has been settled as regards the action of the 

 viperine poisons is that they, at least the venom of Vipera Itussellii, 

 had no chromatolytic action on the nerve cells of the brain and spinal 

 cord, such as we have seen can be demonstrated in the case of the 

 venoms of the cobra and of the Bungari. There is still another point 

 which is of special importance as regards the treatment of cases of bites 

 from these two vipers. It is well known, and I have mentioned it to 

 you before, that these poisons cause great faintness and collapse. These 

 symptoms are due to an action of the poisons on the circulatory appaia- 

 tus, a rapid, well marked and persistent dilatation of all the small arteries 

 throughout the body taking place. This action no doubt helps to bring- 

 about the serious and alarming bleedings which take place in such cases 

 from almost all the orifices of the body. Now there is one drug which 

 has an effect antagonistic to this, and that drug is adrenaline chloride, a 

 preparation made from the small ductless glands which are placed like 

 caps on the upper ends of the kidneys. I have just heard from a friend 

 on the Baluch Frontier that he has found this drug to be of immense 

 value in the treatment of these symptoms ; in fact, he assured me that it 

 was the only drug which was of any use. We have here an. instance of 

 research pointing the way to therapeutics. 



While these are the main actions of the Indian venoms which have 

 been investigated, there are, of course, other problems of the greatest 

 interest and importance to those working at the subject. It is, however, 

 not only on account of its intrinsic interest that snake venom research 

 has received so much attention from scientists. There is another and 

 most important aspect of the subject. For owing to the analogy which 

 has been found to exist between venoms and the toxins elaborated by 

 some micro-organisms, such as diphtheria and tetanus bacilli, the results 

 of experiment with snake poisons have taken a not unimportant place 

 in the development of our knowledge of immunity. For, it has been 

 shown that by continued treatment of an animal with injections of 



