1903.] 



Action of the Poison of the Hydroghiclce. 



405 



ments, then, point to the action of the toxins of the Enhydrina being 

 very similar in nature to that produced by the tetanus bacillus. A few 

 •experiments were also done with Cobra poison in the same way, using 

 the cerebrum only, but here the results were not so marked as in the 

 case of the Enhydrina poison, only a retardation of the onset of symp- 

 toms and of death having been observed. 



Antitoxins. 



Lastly, we have to deal with the question of the possibility of ob- 

 taining an antitoxin against the poison of the Hydrophidae. It has 

 now been abundantly proved that Calmette's antivenin is not a specific 

 against all kinds of snake venom, as he claimed, although in large doses 

 (40 c.c. according to Lamb) it is undoubtedly of great value against 

 the poison of the Cobra. The very marked similarity of the symptoms 

 of poisoning by the Hydrophidae with that produced by Cobra, lead 

 one to hope that the antitoxin, which is efficient against the latter, 

 would also be of value against Sea-snake venom. This has been put 

 to the test by adding minimal and slightly supraminimal lethal doses 

 of the poison of the Enhydrina to one half c.c. of fresh Calmette's 

 antivenin (which had only reached Calcutta a very short time before it 

 was used), and after allowing the mixture to stand at blood heat for 

 half an hour, injecting the whole subcutaneously. White rats were 

 used in the experiments, and the amount of antivenin in proportion to 

 the amount of poison was relatively enormous as compared with the 

 dose recommended in the treatment of men bitten by venomous snakes. 

 Yet the animals uniformly died in just about the same time as the 

 controls, so that it is evident that Calmette's serum is of no use against 

 the poison of the Hydrophidae. 



On the other hand, the similarity in the action of this poison to the 

 ■Cobra and tetanus toxins leads one to expect that an antidote could be 

 prepared against it in a similar way to those of the latter poisons. It 

 is only during three months that I have been able to experiment on 

 this point, fowls being used. It soon appeared that the doses had to 

 be very slowly increased, or fatalities occurred, and in the limited time 

 these experiments lasted, I was only able to immunise one fowl against 

 the minimal lethal dose of this poison, and a slightly larger dose proved 

 fatal with the usual symptoms. My intention was to immunise a 

 series of animals against the Enhydrina poison, and then to test them 

 with small doses of poisons from the other Hvdrophidse, as owing to 

 the large variety of this class of snakes, no antidote would be of any 

 practical value unless it was equally potent against all the genera and 

 species, or at least against the ones most commonly met with. This 

 important and interesting question must await further investigation. 



One experiment, which was carried out in order to test if the serum 



2x2 



