Evening star., 1938-10-13
Doctors
Continued From First Page.)


This has recently been isolated by an
Austrian physician. The pure sub
stance is twice as potent as the venom
itself as nerve poisoner, but can be
diluted to the point where it is 18
times less toxic for use as medicine
This constitutes the pain-killing prin-
ciple of the snake venom.
A second constituent Isolated al
most in pure form from the venom
OF some varieties Of snakes is that
which causes coagulation of the blood
It is an engine, very similar in
chemical structure to the substance
in the human blood which causes it
to clot and thus stops bleeding from
a wound The third known principle
is that which affects the eyes. toward
the isolation of which very little
progress has been made.
In addition to these there is a great
conglomeration Of chemical substances
which apparently have no effects at
all. They may have something to do
with helping along the digestion of
an animal in the snakes stomach.
Until the actual eye specific sub
stance is Isolated, Dr. Alvaro said.
real progress may be made by using
extremely dilute doses of venom, TAX
ing into account the bad effects that
may result from the nerve poisoning
and blood-coagulating principles.
Appropriate Mixture Proposed.
Essentially the same principles are
found, he said, in the venom of all
the poisonous snakes. but they differ
greatly in their proportions. Until
the principle can be isolated, diluted
does Of the poison of the right varie-
ties of snakes probably can be used.
An appropriate mixture of the venom
Of one variety Of cobra and a GER
tain species OF rattlesnake has been
proposed for relieving pain in the
eyes. the effect possibly being due to
favorable proportions of the pain-re-
lieving and eye-specific substances.
DR.. Alvaro stressed that the snake
poison treatment would be suitable
only for selected cases of eye maladies
and would have no value in the great
ma jority Of visual disturbances. Much
more experimentation is needed be-
fore it could be used successfully by
the practicing opthalmologist. He
plans to continue his rabbit eye ex-
periments to determine more precisely
just what the effects are
Meanwhile experiments are in prog
reSs all over the world to determine
the value of the other venom constitu-
ents, he explained. Since the sensa
tional case reported by Galen there
have been numerous other reports OF
lepers either cured or markedly bene-
fitted after receiving snake bites. Con-
trolled experiments. however, have
failed to show any measurable benefit
and the practice is not in good repute
In one Brazilian experiment, he re-
counted, about half a century ago q
leper offered himself as a human
guinea pig. but promptly died from
the effects of the venom. The value
of venom as a pain killer is generally
recognized, it was pointed out, and in
certain selected cases may be the prop
er remedy to use. In controlled ex-
periments no unbeatable good effects
on leprosy have been demonstrated.
More than 1000 cases of squint eyes
were analyzed in report presented to
the academy by Drs James w. White
and Harold w. Brown of New York
As = result Of these studies, they said
it is clear that treatment Of ordinary
inward or outward deviations of the
eyes often depends on recognition OF
the fact that one eye is squinted a
, little upwards or downwards as we'll