SNAKE VENOMS AND THEIR ANTIDOTES. 21 



prepared ; to have a marked but not equally great effect on the venom 

 of* Crotalus adamanteus ; and to have no neutralising action on the 

 venom of another viper, namely, Lachesis gramineus. 



These three serums have also been tested in vitro against the action of 

 the different venoms on the coagulability of the blood. In this respect 

 specificity was well marked. Thus, it was found that cobra venom anti- 

 serum neutralised well its homologous poison, but had no effect on this 

 action of the venom of the King Cobra; that notechis and daboia 

 anti-serums neutralised the fibrin ferments of their respective poisons but. 

 had no effect in preventing the clotting actions of the other poisons 

 which possess this remarkable property. 



I have still to refer to the anti-serums which have been experimented 

 with in America. Flexner and Noguchi have prepared serums with 

 the venoms of Crotalus adamanteus and of the water Mocassin. After 

 testing these serums in detail, they conclude that the action of anti- 

 venines is highly, if not strictly specific, both in vivo and in vitro, a 

 conclusion which is in perfect harmony with the results 1 have put 

 forward above. 



We have now in conclusion to consider the bearing which these 

 observations have on the problem of the serum therapeutics of cases of 

 snake bite. It is very evident that at the very outset we are met with 

 the almost insurmountable difficulty that only the specific anti-serum 

 must be used in any case of snake- venom intoxication. Therefore, for 

 India alone we should require at least six different anti-venines, 

 namely, serums for the venoms of the coin a, the king cobra, the krait, 

 the banded krait, the daboia and thephoorsa. There is no difficulty in 

 the actual preparation of these anti-venines, but there are other diffi- 

 culties in the way. In the first place, it seems almost impossible to 

 collect these poisons in quantities sufficient for the purpose of immuni- 

 sation of large animals. For the last five years arrangements for the 

 collection of venoms, backed by the Government of India and complete 

 in every detail, have been working in the Laboratory at Parel. Even 

 under these most favourable conditions only a very small, quite insuffi- 

 cient, amount of venoms, except the poisons of the cobra and the daboia, 

 has been collected. In the second place, granted that it was possible to 

 prepare serums for these different poisons, the practical use of them 

 would ba beset with difficulty. For when a person, especially a native of 

 India, i> bitten by a snake, he is rarely able to tell the species of snake 



