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313 



is also therapeutic, under the conditions that I have 

 already defined ; that is to say, if you first inoculate 

 a rabbit with such a dose of venom as kills the 

 control-animals in three hours, and then, an hour 

 after injecting the venom, inject under the skin of 

 the abdomen 4 to 5 cubic centimetres of serum, 

 recovery is the rule. When you interfere later than 

 this the results are uncertain ; and in all my experi- 

 ments the delay of an hour and a half is the most 

 that I have been able to reach. 



"This antivenomous serum of asses has these 

 same antitoxic properties with all kinds of snake- 

 venom ; it is equally active in vitro, preventive, and 

 therapeutic, with the venoms of cerastes, of trigono- 

 cephahis, of crotalus, and of four kinds of Australian 

 snakes that Mr MacGarvie Smith has sent to M. 

 Roux. I am still injecting these two animals with 

 venom, and I hope to give to their serum at last a 

 much greater antitoxic power. 



In 1896 four successful cases of this treatment 

 in the human subject were reported in the British 

 Medical Journal. In 1898 Calmette made the 

 following statement of his results : — 



"It is now nearly two years since the use of my 

 antivenomous serum was introduced in India, in 

 Algeria, in Egypt, on the West Coast of Africa, in 

 America, in the West Indies, Antilles, etc. It has 

 been very often used for men and domestic animals 

 (dogs, horses, oxen), and up to now none of those 

 that have received an injection of serum have suc- 

 cumbed. ... A great number of observations have 

 been communicated to me, and not one of them 

 refers to a case of failure." {British Medical Jotirnal, 

 14th May 1898.) 



