Venom not a general protoplasm-
poison.
Medical Officers of the Army of India.
In support of this hypothesis the following additional arguments may be
adduced:
7
Additional arguments favouring
hypothesis.
Injection of purely chemical material may, it is reported, procure immunity
from a specific disease: the protection conferred
by 'vaccine' being, it is alleged, attributable, in
certain cases, to the action of the soluble chemical
products resulting from the growth and development of the morbific germ, rather
than to any direct action of the fungus itself.
1
Injection of purely chemical
material alleged to procure immu-
nity from specific disease.
Venom is not a general protoplasm-poison, 2 so that
its presence need not necessarily be incompatible
with cell life.
It is an established fact that cells may, by a process of education, become
habituated to nutriment, which they at first reject
when it is presented to them in a concentrated form.3
It is thus not impossible that the protoplasm of the snake may become gradually
habituated to the presence of this extraneous proteid material-venom.
It has long been suspected that certain snake-charmers by a process of
inoculation with venom gain protection against the
bite of a particular species of venomous snake.4
And this belief was not effectually disposed of by Fayrer's experiments on the
hurriedly prepared dogs submitted by him to snake-bite.5
1 M. BOUCHARD and others have demonstrated (says the Lancet, 1888), that a rabbit may be protected
against the pyocyanic disease by injecting under its skin the soluble products of cultures deprived of all
microbes by heat and filtration; and that immunity can also be secured by injecting sterilized urine of rab
- b i t s d e a d f r o m p y o c y a n i c i n f e c t i o n , a n d M M . C h a r r i n a n d R u f f e r (F
r a n c e M e d .
N o . 1 2 6 ) f i n d t h a t t h e
soluble products of artificial cultures are eliminated by the kidney without losing their power of conferring
immunity. Dr. WOOLDRIDGE ("Note on Protection in Anthrax," Proc. Roy. Soc., 1887, p. 313), found as
regards anthrax that the albuminous culture-fluid freed from anthrax bacilli (and spores?) by filtration
confers protection. Confirmation, however, of such experiments by KOCH or other thoroughly reliable ob
- s e r v e r i s n e e d e d . A s i t i s h i g h l y r e m a r k a b l e t h a t s t r i c t l y s o l u b l e m a t e r i a l c a n m a k e s o v e r y l a s t i n g a n
impression on the system.
2. The evidence on this point is extensive, viz.—FONTANA's experiments with viper-venom on leeches
l . c .
p . 3 6 . M I T C H E L L
' S e x p e r i m e n t s w i t h
C r o t a l u s
- v e n o m o n r o t i f e r s " a n d o t h e r f o r m s o f a n i m a l c u l a r l i f e ,
and on fungi, loc. cit. pp. 50-52. DARWIN 'S experiment with cobra and adder-venom on Drosera,—'Insec
- v o r o u s P l a n t s '
L o n d . , 1 8 7 5 , p . 2 0 6
e t s e q .
B R U N T O N A N D F A Y R E R'
S e x p e r i m e n t s w i t h c o b r a - v e n o m o n
leucocytes, ciliary motion, cell-movement in vallisneria, and on germinating seeds, Proc. Roy. Soc., 1875.,
p. 278, Vol. 23. MITCHELL AND REICHERT 'S experiments with rattlesnake-venom on ciliary movement, sper
- m a t o z o a , & c . ,
l o c . c i t . ,
p . 1 4 9
e t s e q .
A . E . F E O K T I S T O W
' S e x p e r i m e n t s w i t h v e n o m s o fV
i p e r a a m m o d y t e s ,
v. berus, and crotalus durissus on spermatozoa, monads, and bacteria.— Trans. Imp. Ac. Sci. St. Peters
- b u r g , 1 8 8 8 , q u o t e d i n
L a n c e t ,
p . 3 3 3 , V o l . I I , 1 8 8 8 .
3 THISELTON-DYER in Nature, p. 480, 1888.
4 A popular belief, shared by NICHOLSON, but apparently a mere conjecture ( loc. cit., p. 148); and by, if
I rightly remember, DR. STRADLING, but at present I am unable to refer to the published views of the latter.
5 Thanatophidia of India.
Habituation of protoplasm to
foreign food.
Alleged practice of inoculation
among snake-charmers.