ON "HABU" VENOM AND ITS SERUM THERAPY. 



By T. Kitajima. 1 

 (From the Institute for Infections Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.) 



INTRODUCTION". 



Few species of venomous snakes are native to Japan, the main island, 

 Nippon or Hondo, being inhabited only by the relatively harmless 

 Trigonocephalies Bromlioffi... But the islands Eiukiu (Loo Choo) and 

 Amami (Oshima) are scourged by the fierce snake termed "habu.'' 

 This species inflicts no little damage upon the population, either killing 

 its victims outright or at least debilitating them seriously. The fol- 

 lowing table gives the number of eases occurring annually. 



Table 1. — Number of cases bitten by the venomous serpent "habu" from 

 I89S to 1906. 



Year. 



Number of cases. 



Recovered. 



Deaths. 



Infirmities. 



c 



1 



& 



I 



I 



H 

 H 



I 



1 



H 



S 



a 



1 

 1 



Eh 



1898 



1899 



1900 



1901 



1902 



1903 



190-1 .... 



1905 



1906 



Total . 



158 

 149 

 150 

 148 

 133 

 172 

 138 

 182 

 197 



53 

 64 

 71 

 83 

 48 

 71 

 53 

 79 

 79 



211 

 213 

 221 

 231 

 181 

 243 

 191 

 261 

 276 



133 

 121 

 131 

 130 

 114 

 140 

 123 

 153 

 164 



46 

 53 

 54 

 68 

 39 

 57 

 46 

 63 

 60 



179 

 174 

 185 

 198 

 153 

 197 

 169 

 216 

 224 



18 

 22 

 17 

 18 

 14 

 24 

 12 

 27 

 24 



6 



10 

 14 

 14 

 6 

 4 

 5 

 11 

 17 



24 

 32 

 31 

 32 

 20 

 28 

 17 

 38 

 41 



3 

 2 



5 

 11 

 3 

 5 

 9 



1 

 1 

 3 

 1 

 3 

 7 

 2 

 2 



8 

 4 

 5 

 1 

 8 



18 

 5 

 7 



11 



1,427 



601 



2,028 



1,209 



486 



1,695 



176 



87 



263 



45 



22 



67 



This table shows that 2,028 persons were bitten by this serpent during 

 the past nine years ; of this number 263 died, an average of 225 cases with 

 29 deaths for each year, the death rate being 12.9 per cent. About the 

 same number of cases has been reported from the Riukiu Islands; that 

 is, about 200 a year. 



1 Read at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Philippine Islands Medical Associa- 

 tion, February 2S, 1908. 



151 



