268 VENOMS 



Naja is able to inoculate in a single bite), would only require, 

 in order to escape death, to receive the quantity of antivenomous 

 serum sufficient to neutralise the portion of venom in excess of 

 the amount that he could tolerate without dying. 



Let us suppose, for the sake of example, that the man of 60 

 kilogrammes can withstand intoxication by 14 milligrammes of 

 Naja-\enom. It follows that, in the case with which we are 

 dealing, we must inject sufficient serum to neutralise 20 — 14 ( = 6) 

 milligrammes of venom ; that is to say, the injection of serum 

 being made immediately after the bite, 6 c.c, if the serum employed 

 neutralises in vitro 1 milligramme of venom per cubic centimetre. 



Of course, if the serum is more powerful, less of it will be 

 necessary, while more will be required if the remedy is applied 

 later, or if the quantity of venom inoculated by the snake is 

 supposed to have been greater. 



For this reason, in practice, but very little serum is usually 

 necessary in order to augment the natural resistance of a man 

 of average weight or of a large animal ; it is sufficient in most 

 cases to give an injection of 10 or 20 c.c. in order to cure human 

 beings who have been bitten. The clinical proof of this is, more- 

 over, to be found in the cases, already very numerous, that have 

 been published in the course of the last few years in the scientific 

 journals of all countries. I have gathered together a few of these 

 in the concluding pages of this book, and I would beg the reader 

 to be good enough to refer to them. 



