220

*SNAKE VENOMS.

     A large amount of study on snake venoms and the treatment of snake
bite has been carried out in India. The earlier of the important investiga-
tions were those of Fayrer and Wall and D. D. Cunningham who
studied the actions of the venoms of the principal poisonous snakes.
Large contributions were made to the subject by Lamb in the earlier
years of the present century his work being recorded in the Scientific
Memoir Series No. 2. Subsequent work was carried out by Acton and
Knowles between 1912 and 1914 and their observations on many points in-
cluding treatment are accepted as authoritative. Antivenene is prepared
at the Central Research Institute, Kasauli, against the venoms of the
Cobra and Russell's vipers and the methods of its preparation and con-
centration are under continuous study. An inquiry on these venoms was
in progress at the Institute from 1935 to 1936, and their various physio-
logical actions, neurotoxic, haemorrhagic, coagulant and haemolytic,
were studied in relation to venoms of snakes from different. countries. It
was found that the haemorrhagins of all viper venoms tested were
homologous and that in consequence when a particular viper venom. is
low in neurotoxin and high in haemorrhagin content, the latter being
mainly responsible for the symptoms produced a heterologous anti-viper
venom serum will be of value. The studies on coagulant action of
Russell's viper have resulted in the production of a stable solution for
local haemostatic purposes. The chemical composition of the venom has
also been determined by this Inquiry.

     2. Studies on snake venoms have also been in progress at the Calcutta
School of Tropical Medicine and important contributions made to the
knowledge of their properties and actions.

†PHARMACOLOGY INCLUDING INDIGENOUS DRUGS.

     Systematic study of pharmacology in India was begun in 1921 when a
chair in this subject was established at the Calcutta School of Tropical
Medicine. Previous to this attempts were no doubt made from time to time
by individual workers to study the action of well-known indigenous
remedies but in many cases these were limited to sporadic observations and
often uncontrolled clinical trials. Studies on Cobra venom by Acton and
Knowles, and the study of indigenous anthelmintics by Caius and Mhaskar,
though mainly conducted on chemical lines, were the only pharmacological
researches of earlier days worthy of note.

     2. Since the inception of the Calcutta School, interest has been stimu-
lated in pharmacological research and a number of papers have emanated
from laboratories. all over India. The Calcutta School and the Haffkine
Institute in Bombay, however, have played the major role in the progress
of pharmacology and from both these centres a steady stream of papers
bearing on various aspects of physiology, pharmacology and biochemistry
has been published. Emphasis appears to have been laid on applied and

          *Contributed by Colonel J. Taylor, C.I.E., D.S.O., V.H.S., I.M.S.

          †Contributed by Colonel R. N. Chopra, C.I.E., M.D., K.H.P., I.M.S.