134 THE POISONOUS SNAKES OP INDIA. 



system in a few seconds. Whether this rate of absorption is main- 

 tained can only be a matter of conjecture, but one cannot find a 

 reason to see why the initial absorption should be less rapid than 

 ihat which follows. If as seems probable the same rate of absorp- 

 tion is sustained then the outlook for bitten subjects who have 

 had a large supralethal, dose injeqted into the wounds seems 

 hopeless after the lapse of a few minutes. As we cannot speak 

 positively on this point such measures as excision and amputation 

 seem justifiable in the human subject on the chance that a supra- 

 lethal dose may thereby be converted into a sublethal one. 



(2) ANTIDOTAL TREATMENT. 



There is only one remedial agent in snake poisoning that can claim 

 ;attention as an antidote, viz., antivenene. This as prepared in 

 India is only curative against the toxsemise of the cobra and Russell's 

 viper. 



It is an antitoxin derived from the blood of horses that have been 

 subjected to progressively increasing doses of these two poisons. 

 These animals in time acqiiire a tolerance for these poisons consider- 

 ;ably in excess of the normal lethal dose for horses. It is possible 

 of course to prepare antitoxins that would be operative against the 

 poisons of any snake, but in India a difficulty arises in collecting 

 sufiicient venom from other species to confer upon horses the degree 

 of immunity required. 



Calmette, who (synchronously with Eraser) discovered the anti- 

 dotal properties of blood serum withdrawn from an immunised ani- 

 mal, claims (Venoms, venomous animals, etc., published in 1908) 

 that his antivenene prepared mainly from cobra venom is curative 

 against the poisons of many species of snakes. This claim is refuted, 

 however, (1) by Lamb, and others of high repute by direct experi- 

 ment on animals, (2) it is in direct opposition to the laws that 

 govern the action of antitoxic sera (see * footnote), and (3) it is 



" Behring and Warnicke established the law that the serum of an animal 

 artificially protected ag'ainst any particular poison is capable of transmitting the 

 immunity so derived to another animal, by the introduction of the first animal's 

 serum into the second animal's blood. Antitoxins of all kinds are specific in 

 their action, that is, are antidotal only against the particular poison which 

 was used in their production. Lamb by direct experiment demonstrated that 

 antivenene in no way differed from other antitoxins in this respect, however 

 .close the affinities between the poisons of two different species of snake appeared. 



