Alaska sentinel., 1905-07-06
GETTING EVEN WITH SNAKES
Medical Men Trying To Discover Anti
 dote to Virulent Poisons,

Medical Men Trying To Discover Anti-
 dote to Virulent Poisons.
 The method pursued by medical sci- diseases, is to set back fires; that is, use the cause of the malady to effect its cure. says the Boston Transcript This Is particularly true of those that develop active and yirulent poisons, or more particularly the germ diseases. This has now been brought forward to hopeful experimentation with the pois- on of yenomous snakes. That Is dan ger that perhaps does not possess much personal interest for dwellers in cities, but If genuine antidote for the bites of all kinds of serpents from the cobra to the copperhead could be discovered. thousands of painful deaths in the old world and the new could be annually prevented. Even the United States possesses its share of poisonous rep tiles in Its mountain regions and its semitropical belt, and a great many thousand people would feel more com fortable did they know that an ade- Quate antidote to their yenomous at- Jacks existed.
 In the Bengal province of India the statistics show that over A thousand deaths occur from snake bites every year, and in the other districts the fatalities from the same cause are pro- portionally more numerous. The cob ra Is the principal offender, and as its bite, unlike that of the rattlesnake and most other venomous serpents, causes a comparatively painless death, 1t may be preferable to undergoing experi- ences with famine or bubonic plague. Still, there are many other sections of the world where life is still regarded as worth living and where the bites of poisonous serpents are very much dreaded.
 It Is stated that pr. Marshall of the pathological department of the Uni. versity of Pennsylvania has allied him. self with scientists of Europe in the attempt to discover an efficient anti. dote. It is proper that this enterprise should be international, because if re- suits of value are obtained the whole habitable globe will become their bene- hciary and perhaps spots on 1t not now considered habitable will then become so. Dr. Marshall Is now in Europe making his experiments, but he has enthusiastic co-laborers working for him at the university and at the store house of the Philadelphia ZOO. To this latter post twice month representa-. tives of the university repair to milk" the rattlesnakes and other venomous specimens. The snake is throttled so it is impossible for him to use his fangs and the poison sacs are then pressed, yielding perhaps a teaspoonful of yellowish venom. When the entire stock has been milked the snakes are returned to the storehouse to secrete a new supply.
 The product is taken to the labora. tory, filtered and mixed with salt solu. lions until it crystallizes and Is then consigned to pr. Marshall in Europe, who experiments upon guinea pigs, rabbits and dogs to test its toxicolog. ical effects. Enough progress has been made to learn that snake venom is not a simple poison, but is composed of several constituents of proteid na. ture, each of which acts on one tissue class of cells. The only human subject upon which the antitoxin has been tested was the colored janitor of the zoo, who was bitten by an escaped rattlesnake and recovered by the use of the serum. Serpents will never be agreeable associates, but their neigh. borhood will be robbed of most of its terrors should this scientific quest at. tain completely successful issue.