326 Sir L. Brunton, Sir J. Fayrer, and Dr. L. Eogers. [Feb. 22, 



a 10-per-cent. solution of pure crystalline permanganate of potash in 

 0*9 per cent. NaCl, and after given times the mixtures were injected 

 into pigeons, several times a lethal dose of each venom being used, so 

 that if recovery took place it would be evident that the permanganate 

 had destroyed the activity of the poisons. The following table 

 (p. 327) summarises the results of these experiments. 



It will be seen that the table includes venoms of each main sub- 

 division of snakes, namely, the two true vipers, the Daboia Ilussellii 

 of India and the Puff Adder of Africa, the Pit Viper, the Crotalm 

 horridus, the Colubrine snake the Bungarus fasciatus, and one of the 

 Hydrophidse or Sea-snakes, namely, the Enhydrina bengalensis. In 

 the case of each ten or more lethal doses were neutralised by very small 

 quantities of permanganate in solution, and in most of them twenty 

 lethal doses were readily thus rendered harmless. The only failure 

 was in Experiment 7, in which 32*2 milligrammes of Bungarus fasciatus 

 venom was added to 25 milligrammes of permanganate of potash in 

 solution, and in this case by far the greater part of the poison must 

 have been neutralised, for in previous experiments one-eighteenth part 

 of the venom per kilogramme, used in Experiment 7, killed a pigeon 

 in 1 hour. Further experiments showed that 25 milligrammes of the 

 permanganate of potash did entirely neutralise 16'1 milligrammes of 

 Bungarus fasciatus venom. It is evident then that the salt will 

 neutralise about its own weight of this venom, but that its power in 

 this direction has a definite limit as might have been expected. It is 

 clear, then, that this agent does act on every class of snake venom and 

 renders them inert. 



Owing to the limited time available and the small number of animals 

 for which a license had been obtained, the actual experiments on the 

 treatment after injection of the venoms have been so far limited to 

 those of the Cobra as a typical representative of the Colubrine class, 

 and of the Daboia Bussellii as a common and deadly viper. Rabbits 

 and cats were used in the investigation, the latter on account of their 

 mixed diet and firmer tissues resembling more closely the human 

 subject. The venoms were dissolved in as small a quantity of sterile- 

 normal saline solution (0 - 9 per cent. NaCl) as possible, so as to- 

 resemble in concentration the natural venom. The portion of the 

 limb to be operated on was cleaned of hair by scissors beforehand 

 (as the human subject is free from this obstacle to treatment). The 

 strong solution of venom was then injected into the subcutaneous 

 tissues of the cleaned part of a hind limb a little above the paw, as. 

 most snake bites in the human subject occur on the distal parts of the 

 extremities. After a given measured time a ligature consisting of 

 a piece of bandage was tied loosely round the thigh and twisted up- 

 rightly by means of a piece of stick or a pencil so as to temporarily 

 stop the circulation through the distal part of the limb in order to 



