Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeutics

“A strong coolie, aged 26, was bitten by a cobra on the right ankle, just above the internal malleolus. He was brought to the surgery about one hour after being bitten, in a sta...

Poisonous snakes are especially common in the tropical zones of the Old and New Worlds. The species found in Europe are but of small size and not very formidable. In hot countri...

Besides reptiles, many other animals possess poison-glands and inoculatory organs which they employ, either to defend themselves against their natural enemies, or to capture the...

On making an autopsy of an animal which has succumbed to intoxication by snake-venom, we find that the blood in the heart and large vessels is sometimes coagulated into a mass,...

The means of defence in fishes are extremely varied. Some species (torpedoes or electric rays, electric eels) destroy their enemies by electric discharges; others are provided w...

The proteolytic action of venoms on gelatine, fibrin, and egg-albumen has been studied by Flexner and Noguchi,[53] Delezenne,[54] and subsequently by Noc[55] in my laboratory. I...

In all the countries of the globe where poisonous snakes are formidable to man, there are certain individuals who profess to be secure from all ill-effects from the bites of the...

By the ancients the venom of _salamanders_ and _toads_ was dreaded as much as the most terrible poisons. These animals, however, are not very formidable, since they are devoid o...

So long ago as the year 1887 it was shown by Sewall, in an important paper on “Rattlesnake-Venom,”[94] that it is possible to render pigeons gradually more resistant to the acti...

Sometimes these substances are simply discharged into the surrounding medium, and serve to keep off enemies (_toad_, _salamander_); sometimes they mingle with the fluids and dig...

The bites of poisonous snakes produce very different effects according to the species of snake, the species to which the animal bitten belongs, and according to the situation of...

“For poisonous bites, it is customary to employ a liniment made of fresh sheep-droppings, cooked in wine. Rats cut in two are also applied; these animals possess important prope...

_Non-poisonous_ as well as _poisonous_ snakes possess _parotid_ and _upper labial_ glands capable of secreting venom. In the former the organs of inoculation are wanting, but we...

Their direct penetration into the blood-stream, whether by the bite of the snake itself or by experimental intravenous injection, always produces immediate results. With the ven...

In the condition in which they are received on issuing from the glands, venoms always present the appearance of a thick saliva, of an oily consistency and more or less tinged wi...

It is difficult, in the present state of our knowledge on the subject of toxins and antitoxins, to determine the precise nature of the reactions that are produced in the living...

It was long ago pointed out that certain warm-blooded animals, including the mongoose (_Herpestes ichneumon_, Family _Viverridæ_), hedgehog (_Erinaceus europæus_, Family _Erinac...

Several physiologists, among whom it is right to mention Fontana,[69] Leydig,[70] Reichel,[71] Raphael Blanchard,[72] Phisalix and Bertrand,[73] and S. Jourdain,[74] have pointe...

Fig. 1.--A. Skull of one of the non-poisonous _Colubridæ_ (_Ptyas mucosus_) 7 B. Skull of one of the poisonous _Colubridæ_ (_Naja tripudians_) 7 C. Skull of one of the poisonous...

When a poisonous snake wishes to seize its prey, or strike an enemy, it raises its head, and depresses the lower and elevates the upper jaw in such a way that the _fangs_ are di...