Immunisation against serpents' venom and the treatment of snake-bite with antivenene / an address delivered by Professor Fraser on Friday, March 20, 1896.

Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Immunisation against serpents' venom and the treatment of snake-bite with antivenene / an address delivered by Professor Fraser on Friday, March 20, 1896. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    venom through mucous surfaces, even admitting that absorption of venom does not occur in normal conditions of these surfaces. Venom must, however, be so frecjuently introduced into their bodies, in situa- tions where absorption could not fail to occur, by the bites inflicted upon them by other serpents, that the conclusion seems inevitable that they possess some protective quality, without which, probably, no venomous serpents would now be in existence. Not only have many general observations been made in favour of this belief, but it has been supported by direct experiments, such as those made by Fontana of Tuscany more than a century ago, and by Guyon, Lacerda, Waddell, Kaufmann, and Sir Joseph Fayrer. This, and other evidence, pointing to the existence of protection against venom, not only in serpents themselves, but also, in certain exceptional circumstances, in human beings, several years ago ori- ginated a wish to investigate the matter. It was obviously suggested that if protection occurs, it must be caused by some direct result of the absorption of venom; and, therefore, that its existence could be proved or disproved by experiment. In the former event, the first steps would already have been taken to obtain, by further experi- ments, results likely to be of value in the treatment of poisoning by serpents’ venom, and, indeed, likely to be of suggestive importance in even the wider field of general therapeutics. The general plan to be followed in the first stages of the investi- gation was obviously suggested by some of the statements I have reproduced; for they indicate that individuals might become accus- tomed to, or protected against the effects of serpents’ bites, by the introduction into their bodies of a succession of doses of venom, no one of which, necessarily, at the beginning of the process, was so large as the minimum-lethal. A consideration also of the facts, proving the possession of protection on the part of venomous serpents themselves, indicated the same plan of procedure; for, equally obviously, these serpents, from an early period of their existence, must absorb venom from their own gradually-developing poison- glands, until, in the course of time, they had acquired sufficient protection to remain unaffected by the larger quantities which the now fully-developed glands would introduce into their bodies. My first supplies of cobra venom were obtained in 1869, from the late Dr. Shortt, of Madras, and in 1879 from Surgeon-Colonel Moir, of Meerut. They were in very small quantity, but with them 1 was able to satisfy myself that, by a succession of minute doses, animals became able to receive the minimum-lethal dose without any distinct injury. At this point, however, the supply of venom' failed, and the observations could not then be carried fm-ther. It became evident that until large quantities of venom had been obtained definite results could not bo hoped for. It was not until several years afterwards that a sufficient supply had been gradually accumulated, by further small quantities received from Sir Joseph Fayrer, tho Thakoro of Gondal, aud Dr. Philli2)s;