462 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh . [sess. 
was tested against the minimum-lethal dose of Indian cobra venom, 
it was found to he incapable of preventing death in rabbits when the 
doses of it were *0*2, *01, ‘005, *004, and *0027 grm. ; and in white 
rats when the doses were *001, *00045, and *00027 grm. p. kilo. 
The anti-venomous quality of this bile, therefore, is not appreci- 
ably, if at all, dependent on the constituents soluble in alcohol, 
which include all the bile salts. 
When, on the other hand, the part of the alcohol precipitate 
soluble in water was tested in white rats against the minimum- 
lethal dose of the same venom, while death occurred with *000008 
grm. p. kilo., recovery occurred with *00001, *00002, *000025, and 
*00003 grm. p. kilo. As the quantity of this product was very 
small, the experiments were restricted to white rats, for which 
animals the minimum -lethal dose of Indian cobra venom is slightly 
less than *0003 grm. p. kilo., and the smallest quantity of the 
dried natural bile of the puff-adder required to prevent death from 
this dose of venom is *00025 grm. p. kilo. The extremely small 
quantity of *00001 grm. of this bile product is, therefore, capable 
of preventing death in the same circumstances as *00025 grm. of 
the original bile. 
The isolation of the anti- venomous constituent made it possible 
to obtain further and different evidence of the power of bile to 
render venom inert. Although the bile in its original form 
possesses much power in antagonising venom when the two 
substances are mixed together in vitro , only *0003 grm. of 
rattlesnake bile or *02 grm. p. kilo, of ox bile being required to 
render a minimum-lethal dose of Indian cobra venom innocuous, 
it cannot be too distinctly stated — for the facts are also applicable 
to the antidotism between disease toxines and anti-toxines — that 
these data are apt to give an exaggerated conception of the curative 
value of the antidote when it is administered after the venom. 
Generally speaking, even when no more than the minimum-lethal 
dose of venom is used, the quantity of the antidote required is 
from 1600 to 2000 times greater in the latter than in the former 
condition of administration. Although, while in the alimentary 
canal, bile is non-toxic, it is altogether different when it is injected 
under the skin or into a blood-vessel. The bile salts and the bile 
pigments then act as poisons ; and if a dose of bile were injected 
