472 Proceedings of Boyal Society of Edinburgh. [sess; 
In circumstances which are no doubt exceptional, some of these 
results would admit of useful practical application. 
They probably also offered an explanation of the protection 
apparently enjoyed by certain snake-charmers, as well as by indi- 
viduals who claim to be protected, whether members of special 
sects or not ] for subcutaneous injection is not likely to be the 
method, and it certainly was not the method several hundreds of 
years ago, employed for the introduction of the protection-producing 
venom into their bodies. 
Antidotal Properties of the Blood-Serum of Venomous Serpents . — 
The results of these experiments may explain also the clearly- 
established protection possessed by venomous serpents themselves. 
They, as well as other circumstances, render it important to 
determine whether the blood of venomous serpents contains, as does 
that of artificially-protected animals, an actual substance possessing 
antidotal qualities. 
In order to arrive at some definite conclusion on this subject, I 
have made endeavours to obtain living venomous serpents, and also 
the serum separated from their blood. 
Last year, an arrangement was concluded with one of the best 
known of the importers of wild animals to supply me with living 
cobras. He, however, has not succeeded in doing so, because 
of some exceptional difficulties; but, as an alternative,, he has 
recently sent me several living specimens of the Hamadryas 
{Ophiophagus elaps), a serpent of greater size and more aggressive 
disposition than the cobra, and reputed to be at least as deadly 
as it. 
A few days after their arrival, it was observed that moulting 
was about to commence ; and as the condition of health is 
deteriorated during this process, blood has not yet been taken 
from any living Hamadryas. One of them, however, became 
sickly and died. A short time after its death, the neck blood- 
vessels were opened, and, as coagulation fortunately had not 
occurred, a small quantity of blood was collected, from which a 
little blood-serum afterwards separated. As no liquid venom 
could be obtained from this Hamadryas, this serum has been 
tested against cobra venom. Two experiments were made, in 
which it was mixed with slightly more than the minimum-lethal. 
