Eel Blood For Snake Bite

Some years ago the naturalist Mosse found that the blood of eels, particularly that of 6ea eels, contained a poison which acted, when transferred into the human system, similar to the venom of vipers, although weaker, inasmuch as the eel poison brought about a similar reduction of the temperature of the blood as the enake poison. Based upon this fact, Professor C. Phisalix made very interesting researches, which he presented recently to the Academy of Sciences at Paris. He concluded that the blood of eels possessed imninnifying agencies upon snake poison. He sncceeded by heating a solution of eel poison to 58 degrees C. to destroy its virulence, so that it was possible to inocúlate a guinea pig with the finid, the only effect being the raising of the temperature by a few dogrees. This reaction of the organism was followed by a perfect capability to resist the poison of the vipers, which was administered in a deadly dose 15 to 20 hours after the inoculation with eel blood, but it absolutely f ailed to kill the animaL Even a very small quantity of the heated eel serum was sufficient to produce immunity from snake poison. This discovery is most important, since it can be employed for immunifying human beings against snake bites, and, if not too far progressed, it will even insure a more rapid recovery from snake bite of victims who had not previously been immunified with the serum. -