XIV 



SNAKE-VENOM 



HE Report of the 1875 Commission said : — 



" It is not possible for us to recommend that 

 the Indian Government should be prohibited from 

 pursuing its endeavours to discover an antidote for 

 snake-bites ; or that, without such an effort, your 

 Majesty's Indian subjects should be left to perish 

 in large numbers annually from the effects of these 

 poisons." 



Certainly it was not possible ; and the numbers 

 are large indeed. During 1897, 4227 persons were 

 killed by wild animals in India, and 20,959 by 

 snakes. {British Medical Journal, 5th November 



Sir Joseph Fayrer's name must be put in the 

 highest place of all those who have studied the 

 venomous snakes of India. 



Sewell, in 1887, showed that animals could be 

 rendered immune, by repeated inoculation with 

 minute quantities of rattlesnake-venom, to a dose 

 seven times as large as would kill an unprotected 

 animal. Kanthack, in 1891, immunised animals in 



1898.) 



309 



