The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-10-09
A STRANGE DISCOVERY.
The Bile of serpent nm Antidote
for Its Bite.

for Its Bite.
Another very effective agent for over
coming the venom of serpents has beer
discovered by Professor Thomas X
Fraser OF the university Of Edinburgh
says the New York Tribune. 1t is not
whiskey, wherewith Americans anatagon'
ize the poison of rattlesnakes. nor Is II
M. Calmette's antitoxic serum, obtained
from the blood of animals which have been
lendeIed immune by successive inocuhl-
lions with small quantities Oh tie venom
The new antidote is nothing more nor less
than the serpents own bic. In report
ing a series of elaborate experiments con-
Quoted by himself, Professor Fraser re-
Gently said:
The bile from the gall bladder of the
African cobra, puff adder, rattlesnake and
grass snake was used. and each bile was
tested against the venom OF the African
ana the Indian cobra. For the iirst part
the experiments were made by mixing var
ious quantities OF each bile with a little
mere Than the minimum fatal dose o. the
venom, and then injecting this mixture
under the skin of The animal. The OBJ
ject OF the experiments was not only tc
determine If the bile can render venom
innocuous, but also, II IL nave this power
what Is the smallest quantity of bile ca
pablo of doing it,
Having recounted the various doses which
he employed, ana their effects, he thus
summarizes tho result at was shown
that the bile of venomous serpents is able.
when mixed with the venom OF sorpents
to prevent lethal doses of the latter from
producing death, and that the pile is, in
deed. 80 powerful an agent in doing this
that a quantity actually smaller than the
uli0ntity pf he sufficient for
the purpose.
1T need scarcely be added that the doses
of bile thus shown to be sufficient repre-
sent only minute portions or the bile stored
In the gall bladder Of a serpent, ana that
a serpent, therefore, has at its disposal
enough bile to prevent injury from venom
introduced into the stomach In quantities
many times greater than the minimum
lethal.''
he bile OF harmless serpents was also
tested and found to be eGfecti2o. though in
a less degree. The same secretion IRON an
animal like the OK was made the subject of
other experiments. 1t was even less pow
erful than the bile of innot uoue snakes,
and about one seventh as strong iu its
antitoxic influence) as the bite of the co .
bra or asp But II enough of it were used
ii would overcome a fatal dose of the
poison.
the particular element in a serpent's bite
which had this surprising property, so that
the antidote can b. prepared for the mar
ket in very compact form. And the pro-
cess of manufacture Is probably quite as
simple as, and perhaps mere rapid, than
that of NJ. Calmette.
Precisely how he obtained his clew the
Edinburgh savant does not say. But he
incidentally remarks that some of the
native snake doctors in Africa have a
remedy. compounded of several Substances,
OF which one is snake bile, and they are
accustomed to administer II not only by
introducing 1t into the PATIENTS stomach
twhorc it is probably without eeet). but
also by rubbing 1t into the wound. where
1t would be absorbed inro the blood. 1t
is probable, therefore, that this WONDER
ful provision of nature. which compes a
serpent to secrete in one part Of its sys-
TEN cure FOR the poison that 1t Sc
cretes In another, has long besn known
m some OF those countries where the in
formation is most likely to prove hene-
fetal to mankind