The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-29

It apears that the brothers Mosso first noticed that the serum of eels' blood was poisonous. But M. Calmette' of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, an investigator of high repute, who has given special attention to snake Venoms has looked into this other mat ter carefully, and has developed number of curious facts. He has found, for instance, that if blood of an eel is saved, and the serum is separated from the clotting fibrin, an injection of a sufficient quantity under O persons skin will sicken or kill him. A dozen drops thus sused killed a dog weigh ing fourteen pounds in ten minutes. Efforts to standarize the toxic quality of eel serum have been beset with diff ficulty. The blood of one eel would prove more baneful than that of an- other. Again, there is a seasonal va riation in the toxicity of eel blood, just as there is with the venum of viper However, it is asserted that one cubic centimetre, equivalent to twen- ty-five drops, is a fatal dose for a rabbit whose weight is four pounds.
 But the poisonous quality of the blood may be modified or destroyed in several ways. Heat, as already men, toned, will overcome it. A lower de- gree of temperature than that named will merely reduce it's virulence, with out entirely destroying it. The poison will lose it's power, though, if the serum is kept for eight days or more in the dark. Another remarkable way of 1xtith mo ic tO innc- ulate the eel, before it's blood is re- moved for experiment, with slight dose of anti-venomous serum-the an- ti-toxin is obtained by repeatedly in oculating a rabbit or guinea pig with doses of viper venom until the animal has become immune This treatment of an eel does not altogether do away with the lethal effect of an injection from it's blood into some other crea- ture, but the degree of it's toxic quail ity is diminished by about one-half. In the natural course of events it is not possible for an animal to become inoculated with eel serum, and only l artificial experiments have developed the cases wherein its potency and the chances of overcoming it were ascer- tained. One of the facts thus brought to light is that if rabbit has first i been inoculated with heated eel serum which has lost its poisonous power 1 the animal will be proof against an in lection of fresh, cold serum that would 1 otherwise kill. Heated serum, then, has protective properties. Diluted eel l serum that has not been warmed will act similarly.
 A strange relationship seems to exist s between this and some other poisons. Not only will diluted eel serum render an animal immune against a fatal in lection of the pure article, but it will also protect against a different venom i that derived from a viper. And the ! anti-toXin which has been devised by Calmette for use against snakebite will overcome the effect of eel serum. In l deed, it will do more than diluted eel will. The latter has only protective l properties, whereas anti-venomous serum will cure as we'll as protect. lr the one case, it will be noticed, inocu- ! lation to do any good, must be re- sorted to before the poison is introduc- ed into the system, but in the other l O> employed until afterward. The anti 1 yenomous serum of Calmette is pre-
 pared, as is the anti-toxin of diph
 theria, by inoculating some anlma (say, a horse) with a series of smal
 doses, not big enough to kill, yet. large
 enough to sicken slightly. In time ar
 animal thus treated becomes proo
 against further poison, and the serum of it's blood may then be used to safe
 guard other creatures, especially hu
 man beings, from the effects of snake
 bite, diptheria, tetanus, or hydropho'
 bia, as the case may be.
 The same plan has been tried witt .I eel serum, too. Rabbits have received
 infections of virulent serum of suffici
 ent size to make the animals i'll, bu
 without sacrificing them altogether Then, when they are immune, the SC rum of their blood can be employed