SAFEGUARDS OF THE BODY 
M3 
in a similar way in the presence of other poisons. 
Thus certain poisonous vegetable extracts and the 
venom of snakes may be used to secure artificial im¬ 
munity in the horse, with the development of antitoxin. 
In countries where venomous reptiles abound th$ loss 
of life from their bites is sometimes very great; for 
example, in India, where the great cobra slays many 
victims. An antitoxin for snake poison is now made 
which is most effective against the bites of the cobra 
and several other venomous serpents. It is called 
antivenin. Its efficiency for rattlesnake bites has been 
claimed, but recent studies have thrown some doubt 
upon this point. 
Of course as soon as this remarkable diphtheria 
antitoxin was discovered the eager workers in the 
field of preventive medicine at once concluded that we 
were at the dawn of a new day. For if we can so 
effectively control the ravages of diphtheria, why not 
of the other bacterial diseases? So everybody set to 
work to discover new antitoxic sera—of pneumonia, 
tuberculosis, plague, typhoid fever, cholera and vari¬ 
ous forms of blood poisoning, the bacterial excitants 
of which were already known. 
But, unfortunately, these efforts, pursued with the 
utmost zeal and persistence the world over, have thus 
far met with very little success. Antitoxic sera for 
tetanus, or lockjaw, and for some forms of blood 
poisoning, have seemed to be measurably useful. But, 
for the most part, the attempts have failed, except in 
