Immunisation against serpents' venom and the treatment of snake-bite with antivenene / an address delivered by Professor Fraser on Friday, March 20, 1896.

Date:: 1896

Credit: Immunisation against serpents' venom and the treatment of snake-bite with antivenene / an address delivered by Professor Fraser on Friday, March 20, 1896. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$l^o|)al {^nstitution of Sreat lSr(tain» WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, Friday, March 20, 1896. Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.K.S. Treasurer and Vice-President, in the Chair. Professor Thomas E. Fraser, M.D. LL.D. F.E.S. Immunisation against Serpents' Venom, and the Treatment of Snalce-bite with Antivenene. From a remote period of antiquity, there has been enmity between the human race and serpents, and, in a literal sense, man has bruised the head of the serpent, and the serpent has bruised the heel of man. This long-continued feud has not resulted in victory for either side. Venomous serpents still annually destroy the lives of tens of thou- sands of human beings, and, in self-defence, tens of thousands of serpents are annually slain by man. The progress of knowledge has greatly increased the means for protecting mankind against the death-producing effects of many « diseases ; yet, although these means have been liberally employed in the contest against venomous serpents, none of them have hitherto been found sufficient. The reality of the contest is appreciated when we find pervading medical literature from its earliest beginnings—from the time of Pliny and Celsus—to the present time, disquisitions on the treatment of the bites of venomous serpents, and lengthy descriptions of the numerous remedies, organic and inorganic, that have been used for this purpose. Although extended experience and the application of the scientific methods of the present day, have resulted in showing that each of these remedies had been recommended on insufficient grounds, we may hesitate in pronouncing their recommendation to have been premature, in view of the impossibility of waiting, in the presence of imminent dangers, until accurate demonstration has been obtained by the usually tardy and laborious processes of science. Let me pause here for a few minutes to indicate the practical importance of a scientific demonstration of the value of any remedy that is used in the treatment of snake-poisoning. When a serpent infiicts a wound, I need scarcely say that it is not the wound, but the venom introduced into it which causes the symptoms of poisoning, and the death that may result. This venom is now known to be a complex mixture, containing several non- poisonous as well as poisonous substances. The latter are not ferments, and have no power of reproducing themselves in the body, but they are substances that produce effects having a direct relation- ship to the quantity introduced into the body. This quantity in the case of each serpent varies with its size and bodily and mental A$