The morning times., 1897-01-08
PLAGUE STOPPED In SIAN
TerrOrs of Tropical Countries Over
come by the New Science DIR. Cal
mette, Who Made the Discovery,
Receives Requests from All Over
the World.
London Letter Nec York Press. }

the french Colonies, which is Jne 1lneSJ
colonial corps OF physicians in the world,
the doctor was stationed at one OF the
Pasteur meteorological branches in French
Siam. Heavy floods drove the serpents
from the fields and woods into the huts of
the natives. In one tiny Sidnese village
no less than forty natives were bitten,
and, OF course, died, for recoyerYfrorn
cobra bite does not exist, even In fable.
The doctor hurried to the region where the
cobras were thickcst. He. engaged the
services of the pluckiest native TO he had
byoffering him an amplesumforeveryc cobra
captured alive, with its venesn-maklng ap-
paratus in full working order
The native, by means OF a pot of milk of
which the cobra is exceedingly fond and
bag, succeeded n getting no less than
ninety Of them alive and still remain alive
| himself. He proceeded to settle down to
live like prince among his fellows ON the
income OF his money, while the doctor and
| his ninety cobras, all wriggiing and writhing
in a barrel, started for Paris. He didn't
travel by regular passenger steamer you
/ may bc sure; but went by the governement
boat. The captain was an old sailor and
reputed a brave man. Yet when he walked
| the deck at night and came to think OF what
might happen il those snakes should get out
| of the barrel, he got so nervous that he had
b box built IN which TO keep the barrel.
Before he arrived at Marseilles he had
| that box n a box. Fifty Of the snakes died
| en- route, which was a much smaller per-
centage than the doctor had expected The
| institute told him to go ahead and work on
| the snakes as long as he wanted 70 and call
| for any assistance he needed. That IS the
| advantage of institutions like that founded
by Pasteur A young medical scientist who
| tas anidea doesn't have To use up so much
| energy in earning living hat he has none
| left 70 devote TO the idea. That iS also the
reason why we have anti-toxine and other
| wonderful discoveries. After four years
| hard labor he has completed his work Ex-
| pcriments which have just been concluded
in India and Siam by EneliSnmen and
| Frenchmen have offered the final clinchins
| proof. Though announcements OF his sue
cess have been made before, though numer-
Gus other cures" have been reported as
successful. only To fail this is the first def
| mite announcement.
| The French governments going to estab-
! lish stations throughout the portions OF its
colonies that are infested with yenomous
| snakes-for, as we shall see later. cobra
| bite is not the only bite which has lost its
| demonstrations to which native or q
white settler who is bitten may repair for
| treatment before the poison has done its
deadly work; from which he may get serum
| to use onthe spot himself. The British gov
ernment is considering similar enterprise.
And we'll it may. 1t loses at least $4,000
subjects every year in India alone through
the bite OF the cobra.
Tie first thing the doctor did after he
had his forty snakes in the laboratory was
| to sacrifice eleven OF them for their venom.
An adult cobras poison gland contains
| about thirty drops Of poison, which is al
| most colOrless and forms numerous bubbles
| on coming in contact with the air. Unlike
most toxins, it can stand considerable heat
! without losing its virulence- At 81 degrees
| centigrade it is strong as ever, but at 9S
| degrees il is harmless. In a strong light
it rapidly loses its strength, and therefore
| has to be kept constantly in the dark. No
animal which was immune was found. Even
fish, Holsters and leeches succumbed In
short order after having been in njcCted with
the poison. The cobra itself and a few
noItvenomous serpents alone We're indiffer-
ent to it. rat or a pigeon succumbs in
less than an hour If one drop uf 1T bel jecteG
directly into the blood. \ drop in the vein
One minute after drop had
into the end of rat S tail the tail was cut
off. but the rat died in quarter of an hour.
The system of making artificial immun-
ity is practically tine same as that of anti
toxin in diphtheria. By slowly increasing
injections, an animal is immuned from the
disease or the effects OF the poison germ
which causes disease and death. The serum
| ne ppiroII-s blood infrO,inpnI -
system Of huma n being makes him also
immune In the case of snake bites, the
difficulty lay in the intensely toxic charac-
ter of the material to be dealt with. Horses
are invariably used as subjects, as they
are best suited for obtaining anything like
a quantity of the protective serum.
There are many details of technical ma
| ture, but it may be said briefly that the
horses are injected with increasing quanti
| titles of cobra venom, mixed with dimin
ishing quantities of 1 in so solution
| OF hypochloride OF lime. When one knows
that it takes fifteen months To make the
serum of horses blood sufficiently active
for curative purposes one understands why
| DR. Calmette had to wait four years for
| results. This serum cures not only cobra
bites, but all other snake bites as well al
the bite or the scorpion. which makes il
| of peculiar interest to our Central American
neighbors.
The horror Of death by snake biteis some
thing that beSets the most callOus of white
men in the tropics. MY G0dl" said an
English officer who had been bitten, Ito
think that after going through a dozen
fights l should be killed by a damned
snake" But for this horror and also the
difficulties of handling Cobras, the diseov-
cry of DR.. Yersin, q colleague OF DIR. Cal
mette's and pupil of the great Dr. Roux
, of dphtheria anti-toxin fame would be
far more important, as it will save many
more lives.
DR.. Yersin now definitely announces that
he has found q cure for the terrible huboniC
plague, which has carried off millions oi
Asiatics as well as animals in single year.
The doctor is only thirty years of age. H
was stationed near DR.. Calmette's old sta
ton in Siam, in a little village to which h,
had brought his laboratory apparatus anC
/ | twenty broken-do wn horses for the purpose
of producing serum BY the time he wa
ready to treat human beings the plague ha
killed the quota in the village and passed OF
leaving only one of the afflicted still alive
The doctor cured him in five hours, bu
naturally did not consider that proof of tn
e serum's efficacy. Then he heard that pla gu,
e was raging full blast in the town of Annoy
e at some distance.
h He packed up eighty bottles OF serum an(
l. started Off all haste. The French com
mandant secured for him twenty five of th'
e worst cases. Twenty y-three of them wer
r | cured 4 m ton ia US That settled III with IN,