464 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
also suggests that from bile there may he produced an antidote for 
snake poisoning, which, in its antidotal value, is at least equal to 
the most powerful antivenene or antivenomous serum as yet 
obtained from the blood of immunised animals. 
It is interesting to find that serpents’ bile enters into the com- 
position of the medicines most trusted in for the treatment of snake- 
bite by the natives of Africa. Several specimens of native snake 
medicines have been sent to me, which contain bile along with 
many other ingredients, such as serpents’ heads, dried and powdered 
with the retained venom glands. As I have stated in a former 
communication, venom itself is used by stomach administration as 
an antidote, but many “ snake doctors ” consider that bile is more 
effective. It is employed by them not only by stomach administra- 
tion but also by rubbing it into the wound inflicted by the serpent. 
A “ snake doctor,” with a high local reputation, informed one of 
my correspondents that bile is the better antidote, but that, as 
venom can be more largely obtained, he uses it in the first instance, 
and reserves the bile for employment should the recovery of the 
patient appear doubtful. When asked to assist in procuring ser- 
pents’ gall-bladders in order that the bile might be examined, he 
hesitated, and then exclaimed, “ Oh ! they are beginning to learn 
too much ; ” being obviously alarmed lest his practice should be 
injured. 
The interest associated with this action of bile is probably not 
restricted to its effect on venoms. Analogies in composition would 
suggest that the same action is exerted upon the toxins of disease, 
a suggestion which also receives support from the further analogy 
that many of these toxins — such as those of tetanus and diphtheria — 
while notoriously active when present in the blood, are inert when 
introduced into the stomach. Even when circulating in the blood, 
toxins, in common with other organic poisons, are probably being 
constantly eliminated into the alimentary canal, where they would 
at once lose their destructive power by coming into contact with 
bile, and thereby the total effective quantity of the toxin in the 
body would be reduced. There are also many poisonous substances 
generated in the intestinal canal, which in some circumstances 
produce poisoning. The production of this auto-intoxication may 
partly be due to the failure of the liver to secrete a sufficient amount 
