THE ANTIDOTE. 



The theory of the action of snake-poison as that 

 of a specific nerve-poison, depressing and more or less 

 suspending the function of the motor nerve-centres 

 throughout the body, has in the foregoing pages 

 received a double proof of its correctness. 



In the first place, all the symptoms the snake- 

 poison produces have been passed in review, and 

 shown to be fully explainable by this theory. On 

 this ground alone it may be claimed to have been fully 

 established ; for it is an axiom in science that a theory 

 on any subject must be accepted as correct, if it accounts 

 satisfactorily for all the phenomena observable in con- 

 nection with that subject by showing them to result 

 from the operation of one law. The second inductive 

 proof of the correctness, of the writer's theory has been 

 rendered by the experiments of Feoktistow on animals. 



Science, however, demands that a theory thus 

 established inductively must also stand the test of 

 practical application or deduction It says in the 

 present case : — " Granting your theory to be correct, it 

 is btit a theory, which, however valuable it may be as 

 a contribution to science, is of little value to mankind 

 if you cannot apply it practically. If snake-poison 

 merely acts as a depressant on motor nerve-cells with- 



