SNAKE BITE AND ITS ANTIDOTE. 
421 
la this connection attention is invited to a very interesting 
paper by Prof. Henry Sewell, of the University of Michigan, 
published in the Journal of Physiology, Cambridge, 1887, VIII., 
203, entitled, “ Experiments on the Preventive Inoculation of 
.Rattlesnake Venom.” 
Prof. Sewell assumes in this article that an analogy exists be¬ 
tween the venom of serpents and the ptomaines produced under 
the influence of bacterial organisms. He therefore thought that if 
“ immunity from the fatal effects of snake bite could be secured 
in an animal by means of repeated inoculations with doses of the 
poison too small to produce ill effects, we may suspect that the 
same sort of resistance against germ disease might follow the in¬ 
oculation of the appropriate ptomaines, provided that it is through 
the products of their metabolism that bacteria produce their fatal 
effects.” To settle this point his experiments were tried, with the 
following results: First, that rattlesnake venom, kept for some 
time in glycerine, underwent a gradual deterioration of power, 
this view being in opposition to the experience of other observers. 
Second, that “ repeated inoculation of pigeons with sublethal doses 
of rattlesnake venom produces a continually increasing resistance 
toward the injurious effects of the poison without apparent influ¬ 
ence on the general health of the animals.” These results are 
abundantly proved by the tables which accompany the report. 
It may be of interest at this point to give a brief account of 
the different remedies and plans of treatment that have been sug¬ 
gested from time to time for snake bite. Some years since the 
attention of scientific men was called to a reputed remedy known 
as Bibron’s antidote, of which Dr. W. A. Hammond, U. S. A., 
in the American Journal of Medical Science, Philadelphia, 1858, 
n. s., XXXV., 94, 82, states that, according to Prince Paul, of 
Wiirtemberg, Prof. Bibron allowed a rattlesnake to bite him on 
the lips, cheek, etc., and by taking the antidote suffered no incon¬ 
venience whatever. Dr. Hammond reports one case in which a 
man was bitten by large rattler, four minutes after the bite was 
given a dose of the Bibron antidote, and unpleasant symptoms 
disappeared but returned; in forty minutes another dose was 
given. In five minutes all pain had vanished and he recovered 
