5

from the symptoms seen in experiments with cobra venom. Rogers ⁸ has shown
that death is due to respiratory paralysis of central origin as in the case of cobra
venom intoxication.

      The minimum lethal dose for rabbits by intravenous injection was found to be
0.04 milligramme per kilo. The test dose now used to ascertain if either C. V.
serum or H. C. V. serum had any antitoxic effect for this venom was ten lethal
doses, namely, 0.4 milligramme per kilo.

      It will be seen from the protocols (Table IV) that the rabbit which received
4 c.c. of either serum along with the test dose of poison died as quickly as the
control animal. It is, therefore, evident that neither C. V. serum nor H. C. V.
serum has any neutralising effect for the general action in vivo of the venom of
Bungarus cœruleus.

       BUNGARUS FASCIATUS (BANDED KRAIT).—In a recent publication ⁹ I gave
a detailed account of the physiological actions of the venom of this species. It
was there shown that cases of intoxication with this poison can be divided into
three classes :—

      (a) Cases in which rapid death, due to intravascular thrombosis, follows
intravenous injection of large quantities of venom.

      (b) Cases which present acute nervous symptoms and which terminate
fatally within two or three days after the injection of the poison. These
cases are indistinguishable, as far as symptoms are concerned, from
cases of cobra venom intoxication.

      (c) Cases which run a chronic course and end fatally between the 6th and
12th day after the injection of the poison. Such cases are peculiar
to intoxication with this venom and present marked special symptoms.
They in no way resemble cases of chronic daboia poisoning. A his-
tological examination of the nervous system in these cases shows a
well marked primary degeneration of the cells of the central nervous
system.

     Further, it was demonstrated in the paper cited that neither Calmette's
serum nor H. C. V. serum had any neutralising effect for this poison. We have,
therefore, now only to consider an observation made with C. V. serum and
Bungarus fasciatus venom.

       This observation consisted in testing 4 c.c. of serum against three lethal
doses of venom by intravenous injection. A reference to Table V of the protocols
will at once show that the animal which received this mixture died after practically
the same interval of time as the control rabbit. We can, therefore, conclude that
C. V. serum has no antitoxic effect for the action of Bungarus fasciatus in vivo.

      HOPLOCEPHALUS CURTUS (AUSTRALIAN TIGER SNAKE).—Tidswell ¹⁰ has
carefully tested the serum which he has prepared with the venom of this species
against the corresponding poison and has shown that 0.4 c.c. of serum was