u6 CURES FOR SNAKE-BITE 



tion with cobra poison, be rendered so thoroughly 

 proof against it that a dose which would suffice to kill 

 ten ordinary horses only imparts " increased vigour 

 and liveliness " to it. Further, Dr. Fraser has found 

 that the serum of the blood of an animal thus 

 rendered proof against poison is itself an antidote 

 capable of combating that poison after it has been 

 at work for thirty minutes in the veins of a rabbit, 

 and arresting its effects. And all this has been 

 achieved without apparent detriment to the dis- 

 tinguished doctor's sanity. 



This must be intensely interesting intelligence to 

 Englishmen throughout India, and joyful intelli- 

 gence too, for, scoff as we may at the danger of 

 being bitten by a poisonous snake, nobody likes to 

 think that, if such a thing should happen to him 

 (and very narrow escapes sometimes remind us that 

 it may) , there would be nothing for him to do but 

 to lie down and die. And so, ever since the Honour- 

 able East India Company was chartered, the anti- 

 dote to snake poison has been a sort of philosopher's 

 stone, sought after by doctors and men of science 

 along many lines of investigation. And every now 

 and then somebody has risen up and announced 

 that he has found it, and has had disciples for a 

 season. 



But one remedy after another, though it might 

 give startling results in the laboratory, has proved 

 to be useless in common life, and the majority of 

 Englishmen have long since resigned themselves to 



