22 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI J. 



which has inflicted the bite and further, as an anti-venomous serum to 

 be of much practical utility must be injected before any symptoms of 

 intoxication have set in, the medical man who is called on to treat a 

 case of snake bite with anti-toxin is not as a rule in a position to form 

 an opinion, either from the history of the case or from the symptoms, as 

 to the nature of the venom which has been injected. He would have, 

 therefore, either to use one of the anti-toxic serums at haphazard or to 

 inject the whole of them at once, neither of which methods would 

 commend itself as a trustworthy or scientific therapeutic measure. 



As far as is possible we have already overcome these difficulties. 

 At the Pasteur Institute at Kasauli a polyvalent serum is now 

 prepared with a mixture of equal parts of cobra and daboia venoms. 

 This serum is highly efficacious for both the poisons with which it is 

 prepared but it would be of little or no value for the bites of other 

 Indian poisonous saakos. It is now the only anti-venine issued from 

 that Institute. It is supplied free to all Government Hospitals and 

 Institutes and at a small charge to private individuals. Let us hope- 

 that it may be used freely and that it may save many lives which are 

 now lost for lack of scientific treatment. 



