Tllfi TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb, 1, 190L 
SNAKE POISONS AND ANTIDOTES. 
Captain R. H. Elliot, i M s, delivered an in- 
teieHinL' lecture a few days ago on "Snake 
Poisons and tlieir Remedies" to the members of 
the Madras Young Men's Cliristian Association. 
In the absence of Dr. J. K. Henderson, of the 
Madras Christian College, Mr. G. Benton Smith 
presided. Dealing with antidotes to snake poisons, 
Captain Elliott said that the fallacies that occurred 
in connection with snake poision antidotes were in- 
numerable, almost unbelievable, almost every 
village claimed to have unfailing remedies, most of 
them vegetable ))reparations for snake poison ! 
People were never in doubt as to their etticacy ; 
in fact they represented that they had tried and 
tested then'i and effected several cures with them. 
Several native« had come to him with such pre- 
parations and he found them all, by repeated 
experiments, absolutely worthless. The several 
at-called cures they Had effected with the prepara- 
tions had either been scorpion stings, pricks by 
thorns or by sharp stones, or bites by harmless 
Buakes. He invited tiie many natives who came 
to hiiii with "unfailing antidotes" to submit 
themselves to an injection of a dose of lethal 
poison and then prove the effect of the cures on 
their own persons. Needless to say that the invi- 
t ition was never accepted. In this connection he 
dealt with Professor Muller's strychnine cure. 
He pointed out that MuUer talked nonsense when 
he spoke of strychnine being an unfailing cure. 
From hundreds of experiments he (the lecturer) 
had made With strychnine on different animals, he 
found it to be absolutely useless. Frotessor Muller's 
remedy had now been exploded altogether. In 
fact it was found that, in a larRC number of cases, 
victims of snake poison had been killed more by 
the administration of the strychnine than from 
ett'eets of the poison itself. An injection of am- 
nionia as well as the swallowing of it were also 
spoken of as antidotes, but he was convinced that 
this was also useless. Alcohol was equally useless 
aB an antidote ; on the other hand it did harm. 
Keferring to the immunity of snake charmers, he 
was inclined to think that some of them had ob- 
tained a certain amount of immunity by rubbing 
small quantities of poison into abrasions in the 
skin. They had a wonderful control over snakes 
which had^^like horses, to beapproached and treated 
gently if they were to be kept under control. The 
mongoose had a very large amount of immunity. 
He was not then sure of the exact figure, but 
he believed that a mongoose, weight for weight, 
•would require, to kill it, 25 times the amount of 
poison which would kill a rabbit. The pig also 
was somewhat resistent to snake poison. Pea- 
fowl and guinea-fowl which were commonly cre- 
dited with immunity, were no more so than other 
animals. Cats and dogs, which were also credited 
witlv immunity, owed tlieir reputation to the same 
cause as snake-charmers, namely to their wonder- 
ful dexterity. 
The serum of the Ruseel viper was to some 
• extent antidotal, but its antidotal powers were 
not sufficiently powerful to make it a marketable 
product. Besides there was a sertain amount of 
risk in obtaining serum from snakes. The same 
was the case with the mongoose which was a very 
difficult animal to deal with. The serum of the 
horse contained certain protective properties out 
of which was prepared the anti venine which was 
tried and found to be a good antidote against snake 
in this matter lay in separating from ilie snake 
poison itself its own antidote. It would be diffi- 
cult to tell them exactly how he thought it could 
be done. He thoui;ht it was po.-sible that in snake 
poison its-elf there was not merely a lethal matter 
that killed, but side by f-iAn with it, at all events 
separable from it by heat »nd chemical pro- 
cesses, there remained a remedy which would 
be veiy powerful as an antid(ite. He thought 
th:it possibly one might be able by very careful 
experin)ents to separate such a remedy from the 
bile of the snake. There was quite enough to 
encourage them to think that there was a pos- 
sibility that either from bile or .'-erpeiit serum, 
or possibly by inoculating these iiito a resistent 
animal, tiiey would be nble to obtain a body 
which would be more pow-iful and stable than 
anything that they possessed at [ireseiit as an 
antidote. 
Captain Elliot then exhibited to the audience 
snake poison in a small bottle ; which, he said, 
was the largest collection of snake poison in the 
world. — Pioneer. 
poison, 
But to Uis niiatl the hope of the future 
RAMIE FIBKE. 
A PLANTER ON A BIG SCALE. 
Among the passengers stranded in Cey- 
lon for a fortnight or so, by the break-down 
of the French steamer •■ Sydney," is Mr 
H. C. Bluntschli, of Siak, Sumatra, who 
for seven years has been giving his atten- 
tion to the cultivation of fibre-yielding 
plants, chiefly Kamie, and the preparation 
of the fibre therefrom. Mr. BUmtschli (who 
has, for many years, been a reader of the 
Tropical Agriculturist), has jtist returned 
from Europe, where he has been making 
.% systematic study of fibres in many of 
the Continental centres of manufacture as 
well as in Bradford and other places 
in the United Kingdom, and he has 
entered into an advantageous contract 
for a steady supply of his rawpiodnct. Mr. 
Bluntschli says ihe great matter is to get 
the right plant to grow (and he purposes 
visiting China to see some of the fibre 
plants there, specially China Grass.) He 
cuts a crop from his Kamie fields every six 
weeks— save that twice a year or so 
there is a rest from growth during the dry 
weather. The machines he uses gives 
from 1 to 3 per cent of clean fibre fit for 
shipment, while some use is made of bye* 
products. Mr. Bluntschli has experimented 
with, pineapple fibre, getting £3u a ton for 
tw^o tons to Europe, with an order for any 
quantity ; also with Aloe and other plants. 
But he deems Ramie, so far, the best and 
most profltaVde— the drawback, however, for 
the planter being that there are at present 
so few buyers, most of the Bradford spin* 
ners, after certain unfortunate experiences, 
refusing to touch Ramie. Mr. Bluntschli is 
to send us his latest report on the subject. 
He is to visit each of the local Botanic 
Gardens and Kandy and Ntiwara Eliya, and 
we bespeak attention, hoping he will have 
a pleasant and interesting time. Our visitor, 
who is a Swiss, speaks English well ; and 
we only wish we had a capitalist of his 
calibre to develope anew industry in flbies 
in Ceylon. 
