467 
1894 - 5 .] Antivenene and Serpents' Blood-Serum. 
•004 C.C., *003 C.C., *002 c.c., and ’001 c.c. per kilogramme were each 
sufficient to iwevent death from somewhat more than a minimum- 
lethal dose of venom, hut that -0005 c.c. ( 20 V 0 ) insufficient. 
As the antivenene obtained from protected rabbits which had 
last received thirty times the minimum-lethal dose failed to prevent 
death, in the same conditions of experiment, when its dose was 
*0025 c.c. ( 4 ^ 0^11 of a c.c.), the antivenene obtained from the horse 
is about twice as powerful as an antidote as the antivenene of 
rabbits protected against thirty and even fifty times the minimum- 
lethal dose. 
When given thirty minutes after the same lethal dose of venom, 
this serum, further, was able to prevent death when the quantity 
injected was only ’5 c.c. per kilo. 
In considering these results it must be recollected that the 
minimum-lethal dose of venom for horses has not yet been defined, 
and that no other data are available for forming an estimate than 
those derived from the determinations described in the former com- 
munication, which have been made in a few herbivorous animals. 
The dose last given to the horse may, therefore, have been consider- 
ably more than fifteen times the minimum-lethal dose. On the other 
hand, it may be the case that the maximum production or retention 
of antivenene occurs in the horse and other herbivorous animals with 
fifteen times the minimum-lethal dose, or, to use a chemical phrase, that 
with this dose the saturation-point of the blood has been reached. 
Several interesting and practically important subjects for inves- 
tigation are thus suggested, with regard to which information is 
likely to be obtained by an examination of the antivenene of the 
horse now undergoing protection, after the administration of the 
larger doses of venom which it is intended should be given. 
Although it is certainly desirable that a still more powerful 
antivenene should be obtained, the antivenene already obtained is 
of sufficient antidotal power to be applied to the treatment of 
snake-bite in man ; and I propose to send the greater part of it to 
India for this purpose. 
For practical use, it is obvious that the antivenene in the dry 
state has advantages over a liquid preparation — in respect, for 
example, to portability, resistance to decomposition, and facility of 
subdivision into doses. 
