The Project Gutenberg eBook ofVenoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeuticsThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeuticsAuthor: A. CalmetteTranslator: E. E. AustenRelease date: January 30, 2016 [eBook #51078]Most recently updated: October 22, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by deaurider, Wayne Hammond and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VENOMS: VENOMOUS ANIMALS AND ANTIVENOMOUS SERUM-THERAPEUTICS ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeuticsAuthor: A. CalmetteTranslator: E. E. AustenRelease date: January 30, 2016 [eBook #51078]Most recently updated: October 22, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by deaurider, Wayne Hammond and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)
Title: Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeutics
Author: A. CalmetteTranslator: E. E. Austen
Author: A. Calmette
Translator: E. E. Austen
Release date: January 30, 2016 [eBook #51078]Most recently updated: October 22, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by deaurider, Wayne Hammond and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VENOMS: VENOMOUS ANIMALS AND ANTIVENOMOUS SERUM-THERAPEUTICS ***
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Mr. E. E. Austen, of the British Museum, has been good enough to undertake the translation of my book on “Venoms.” For the presentation of my work to the scientific public in an English dress I could not have hoped to find a more faithful interpreter. To him I express my liveliest gratitude for the trouble that he has so kindly taken, and I thank Messrs. John Bale, Sons and Danielsson for the care they have bestowed upon the preparation of this edition.
Institut Pasteur de Lille,A. Calmette, M.D.June 17, 1908.
In the month of October, 1891, during the rains, a village in the vicinity of Bac-Lieu, in Lower Cochin-China, was invaded by a swarm of poisonous snakes belonging to the species known asNaja tripudians, or Cobra-di-Capello. These creatures, which were forced by the deluge to enter the native huts, bit four persons, who succumbed in a few hours. An Annamese, a professional snake-charmer in the district, succeeded in catching nineteen of these cobras and shutting them up alive in a barrel. M. Séville, the administrator of the district, thereupon conceived the idea of forwarding the snakes to the newly established Pasteur Institute at Saigon, to which I had been appointed as director.
At this period our knowledge of the physiological action of venoms was extremely limited. A few of their properties alone had been brought to light by the works of Weir Mitchell and Reichard in America, of Wall and Armstrong in India and England, of A. Gautier and Kaufmann in France, and especially by Sir Joseph Fayrer’s splendidly illustrated volume (“The Thanatophidia of India”), published in London in 1872.
An excellent opportunity was thus afforded to me oftaking up a study which appeared to possess considerable interest on the morrow of the discoveries of E. Roux and Behring, with reference to the toxins of diphtheria and tetanus, and I could not allow the chance to escape. For the last fifteen years I have been occupied continuously with this subject, and I have published, or caused to be published by my students, in French, English, or German scientific journals, a fairly large number of memoirs either on venoms and the divers venomous animals, or on antivenomous serum-therapeutics. The collation of these papers is now becoming a matter of some difficulty, and it appeared to me that the time had arrived for the production of a monograph, which may, I hope, be of some service to all who are engaged in biological research.
Antivenomous serum-therapy, which my studies, supplemented by those of Phisalix and Bertrand, Fraser, George Lamb, F. Tidswell, McFarland, and Vital Brazil, have enabled me to establish upon scientific bases, has now entered into current medical practice. In each of the countries in which venomous bites represent an important cause of mortality in the case of human beings and domestic animals, special laboratories have been officially organised for the preparation of antivenomous serum. All that remains to be done is to teach its use to those who are ignorant of it, especially to the indigenous inhabitants of tropical countries, where snakes are more especially formidable and deadly. This book will not reach such people as these, but the medical men, naturalists, travellers, and explorers to whom it is addressed will know how to popularise and apply the information that it will give them.
I firmly believe also that physiologists will read the book with profit. Its perusal will perhaps suggest to them the task of investigating a host of questions, which are still obscure, relating to toxins, their mode of action upon the different organisms, and their relations to the antitoxins. There is no doubt that in the study of venoms a multitude of workers will, for a long time to come, find material for the exercise of their powers of research.
At the moment of completing this work I would like to be allowed to cast a backward glance upon the stage that it marks in my scientific career, and to express my heartfelt gratitude to my very dear master and friend, Dr. Émile Roux, to whom I owe the extreme gratification of having been able to dedicate my life to the study of experimental science, and of having caused to germinate, grow, and ripen a few of the ever fertile seeds that he sows broadcast around him.
I am especially grateful to those of my pupils, C. Guérin, A. Deléarde, F. Noc, L. Massol, Bernard, and A. Briot, who have helped me in my work, while showering upon me the marks of their confidence, esteem, and attachment; to my former chiefs, colleagues, and friends of the Colonial Medical Staff, Drs. G. Treille, Kermorgant, Paul Gouzien, Pineau, Camail, Angier, Lépinay, Lecorre, Gries, Lhomme, and Mirville; and to my numerous foreign or French correspondents, George Lamb, Semple, C. J. Martin, Vital Brazil, Arnold, de Castro, Simon Flexner, Noguchi, P. Kyes, Morgenroth, J. Claine, Piotbey, and R. P. Travers, several of whom have come to work in my laboratory, or have obligingly procured for me venoms and venomous animals.
I have experienced at the hands of a large number of our ministers, consuls, or consular agents abroad the most cordial reception on repeatedly addressing myself to them in order to obtain the papers or information of which I was in need. It is only right for me to thank them for it, and to acknowledge the trouble that M. Masson has most kindly taken in publishing this book.
Institut Pasteur de Lille,A. Calmette.March 10, 1907.
VENOMS.
A large number of animals possess special glandular organs capable of secreting toxic substances calledvenoms.
Sometimes these substances are simply discharged into the surrounding medium, and serve to keep off enemies (toad,salamander); sometimes they mingle with the fluids and digestive juices, and then play an important part in the nourishment of the animal that produces them (snakes); in other cases, again, they are capable of being inoculated by means ofstingsorteethspecially adapted for this purpose, and then they serve at once as a means of attack or defence, and as a digestive ferment (snakes,spiders,scorpions,bees).
An animal is said to bevenomouswhen it possesses the power ofinoculatingits venom.
Venomous species are met with in almost all the lower zoological groups, in theProtozoa,Cœlenterates,Arthropods,Molluscs, and in a large number ofVertebrates(fishes, amphibians, and reptiles).
Thereptilesare best endowed in this respect, and it is in this class of creatures that we meet with the species most dangerousto man and to mammals in general. The study of their venom, too, is of considerable interest, since it should lead to the quest of means of protection sufficiently efficacious to preserve us from their attacks.
Venomous reptiles are not always easy to distinguish from those devoid of any inoculatory apparatus. For this reason both classes alike have at all times inspired mankind with a lively dread, which is displayed among the various races in legends and religious beliefs.
In ancient days the cult of the snake occupied a prominent place. InGenesisthe serpent is the incarnation of the Evil One, tempting and deceitful. In Greece it was the symbol of wisdom and prudence. In Egypt it was associated with the Sacred Scarabæus and the flowers of the lotus to represent Immortality!
At Rome epidemics ceased when the snake sacred to Æsculapius was brought from Epidaurus.
According to Kraff, the Gallas of Central Africa consider the snake as the ancestor of the human race, and hold it in great respect.
In India the cult of the Seven-headedNaja, or serpent-god, was formerly almost as flourishing as that of Buddha. It is still regarded as a crime to kill a Cobra when it enters a hut; prayers are addressed and food is offered to it. Its presence is an omen of happiness and prosperity; it is believed that its death would bring down the most terrible calamities on whomsoever should have brought it about, and on his family.
Nevertheless, in the Indian Peninsula alone, the Cobra, the Krait, and a few other extremely poisonous species of snakes cause every year an average of25,000deaths. The number of fatalities from the same cause is likewise considerable in Burma, Indo-China, the Dutch Indies, Australia, Africa, the West Indies and Tropical America generally.
The temperate regions of the globe are less severely affected;but in North America the Rattle-snake and the Moccasin are especially deadly.
In France the Common Viper abounds in Jura, Isère, Ardèche, Auvergne, Vendée, and the Forest of Fontainebleau.Three hundred thousandhave been killed in twenty-seven years in the Department of Haute-Saône alone. Every year this snake causes the death of some sixty persons. Cow-herds, shepherds, and sportsmen fear it greatly, since it is very dangerous to cattle, sheep, and dogs.
Poisonous snakes are divided by naturalists into two great Families, theColubridæandViperidæ, distinguished from each other by certain anatomical characters, and especially by the dentition.
TheColubridæresemble harmless snakes, which renders them all the more dangerous.
They are divided into two groups:Opisthoglypha(ὄπισθεν, behind; γλυφὴ, a groove) andProteroglypha(πρότερον, before; γλυφὴ, a groove).
TheOpisthoglyphahave the upper jaws furnished in front with smooth or non-grooved teeth, butbehindwith one or several rows of long, canaliculate teeth.
This group includes threeSub-families:—
A. TheHomalopsinæ, having valved nostrils, placed above the snout.
B. TheDipsadomorphinæ, in which the nostrils are lateral in position, and the dentition is highly developed.
C. TheElachistodontinæ, which have but rudimentary teeth only on the posterior portion of the maxillary, on the palatine and on the pterygoid bones.
Almost all the snakes belonging to these three sub-families arepoisonous, but only slightly so. They are not dangerous to man. Their venom merely serves to paralyse their prey before deglutition takes place; it does not afford them an effective means of defence or attack.
All theHomalopsinæare aquatic; they bring forth their young in the water, and are met with commonly in the Indian Ocean, starting from Bombay, and especially in the Bay of Bengal, on the shores of Indo-China and Southern China, from Singapore to Formosa, in the Dutch Indies, in Borneo, the Philippines, New Guinea and the Papuan Archipelago, and as far as the north of Australia.
TheDipsadomorphinæcomprise a large number of highly cosmopolitan genera and species, found in all the regions of the earth except the northerly portions of the Northern Hemisphere. None of these reptiles is capable of causing serious casualties among human beings, owing to the peculiarly defective arrangement of their poison-apparatus. I therefore do not think it worth while to linger here over their description.
TheElachistodontinæare of even less importance; at the present time only two species are known, both of small size and confined to Bengal.
TheProteroglyphagroup of theColubridæis of much greater interest to us, since all the snakes belonging to it are armed with powerful fangs, in front of the upper maxillaries. These fangs, which are provided with a channel in the shape of a deep groove, communicate at the base with the efferent duct of poison glands, which are often of very large size.
The group is composed of twoSub-families:—
A. TheHydrophiinæ(sea-snakes), provided with a flattenedoar-shapedtail. The body is more or less laterally compressed; the eyes are usually small, with circular pupils; the scales of the nose have two notches on the upper labial border.
The normal habitat of all the members of this sub-family is thesea, near the shore, with the exception of the genusDistira, which is met with in the fresh water of a lake in the Island of Luzon, in the Philippines. They are frequently found in very large numbers in the Indian seas and throughout the tropical zone of the Pacific Ocean, from the Persian Gulf to the west coast of the American Continent, but they are entirely absent from the West Coast of Africa.
B. TheElapinæ(land-snakes), with a cylindrical tail, and covered with smooth or carinate scales. These serpents are frequently adorned with brilliant colours. Some of them (belonging to the genusNaja) have the faculty of expanding the neck in the shape of a parachute, by spreading out the first pairs of ribs when they are alarmed or excited: the breadth of the neck then greatly exceeds that of the head. They are distributed throughout Africa, Asia, and North and South America, and are also found in Australia, where almost all the snakes that are known belong to this sub-family.
The FamilyViperidæis characterised by a triangular head, which is widened posteriorly, and by the general aspect of the body, which is usually thick-set and terminated by a short tail. The bones of the face are movable. The præfrontal bone is not in contact with the nasal; the maxillary is greatly shortened and may be articulated perpendicularly to the ectopterygoid; it bears a pair of large poison-fangs, one on each side, and these are always accompanied by several teeth to replace them, folded back in the gum; these latter teeth come in succession to take the place of the principal tooth, when this is broken or falls out of itself when the snake sheds its skin.
The poison-fangs are notgrooved, as in theProteroglyphous Colubridæ; they are pierced by a perfectly formed canal, the upper end of which inosculates with the efferent duct of the corresponding poison-gland, while its lower extremity opens to the exterior a little above and in front of the tip. The latter is always very sharp.
The palate and lower jaw are furnished with small hooked teeth, which are solid and non-venomous.
With the exception of the species ofAtractaspis, these snakes are all ovoviviparous. The majority are terrestrial; a few lead a semi-aquatic existence, while others are arboreal.
Their distribution includes Europe, Asia, Africa (with the exception of Madagascar), and North and South America. They do not exist in Australia.
They are divided into twoSub-families:—
A. TheViperinæ, in which the head, which is very broad and covered with little plates and scales, has no pit between the nose and the eyes;
B. TheCrotalinæ(κρὁταλον, a rattle), in which the head is incompletely covered with scales, and exhibits a deep pit on each side, between the eye and the nostril.
Among snakes, the characters that serve as a basis for the determination of genera and species are the general shape of the body, especially that of the head, the arrangement of the cephalic scales, the cranial skeleton, and the dentition.
Cranial Skeleton.—The cranium is composed of a certain number of bones, the homologues of which are found in the mammalian skeleton; but the bones are complex, and subject to modifications according to the structure and habitat of each species.
The special arrangement of the bones of the face is above all characteristic of the poisonous snakes. Those forming the upper jaw, the palate and the mandibles or “inter-maxillaries” are movable upon each other and on the cranium. The upper and lower maxillaries are united by an extensile ligament and articulated with the tympanic bone, which permits the mouth to be opened very widely when the animal swallows its prey.
Dentition.—Thenon-poisonoussnakes have two rows of teeth in the upper jaw—one external, themaxillary, usually composed offrom 35-40 small, backwardly curved teeth; the other internal, thepalatine, which only numbers from 20-22 teeth, having the same curvature (fig. 1,A).