468 Veterinary Medicine. 



dicate antidotal qualities. Less painful, and on the whole, more 

 effective agents are potassium permanganate in a strong solution, 

 or tincture of chloride of iron or of iodine, and these may be not 

 only applied freely, but even injected deeply into the tissues with 

 a hypodermic syringe. 



The only known antidotal internal treatment is by the antitoxic 

 serum of an immunized animal. Stimulants are useful only so 

 far as they counteract the weakness of the heart, and prevent col- 

 lapse, thereby allowing time for the exhaustion or elimination of 

 the poison. For this purpose digitalis, strychnine and nitro- 

 glycerine are of material value. The judicious administration of 

 dilute aqua ammonia, aromatic spirits of ammonia, whisky, brandy 

 or camphor may be advantageously resorted to. Giving alcohol 

 to intoxication serves only the one end of putting an end to the 

 terror of the human patient. Apart from this, and habitually in 

 the lower animals such excessive doses prostrate the nervous sys- 

 tem and rather conduce to a fatal result. Alcohol, like other 

 stimulants, should be used to sustain by stimulation, and never in 

 such excess as to lower vital functions and retard elimination. 



The antitoxic serum from the blood of a rabbit or other animal 

 that has been subjected to minimal, non-fatal doses of snake 

 venom until it has become strongly immune, exerts a certain an- 

 tagonism toward the venom. Three cc. mixed with i mm. 

 venom for ten minutes, and the mixture then inoculated on a 

 rabbit, prevented ill effects. The same mixture set aside for ten 

 minutes and then heated to 68° C. (145° F. ) proved deadly ; the 

 activity of the serum appeared to be abolished, while that of the 

 venom was unaffected. A more lasting protection may be gained 

 from the education of the leucocytes to produce their own antitoxin 

 in animals likely to be exposed to snake bite. For this purpose 

 a minimal dose of venom may be inoculated in a non-vascular 

 part, like the tip of the tail in cattle. If much swelling occurs, 

 the results may be at once checked by amputation of the swollen 

 part and the application of potassium permanganate. This im- 

 munization has been long recognized in localities where venomous 

 snakes abound, the person or animal once bitten and surviving, 

 bearing thereafter a sort of charmed life. It has even been alleged 

 that the snake venom secures a measure of immunity against 

 other poisons, as: rabies (Fernandez), and abrine (Calmette). 



