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Scientific Memoirs by

   It sat down drowsily, and within the course of ten minutes slight spasmodic
jerking of the wings and legs set in, and continued to be present during the next
20 minutes. They then disappeared, and shortly after, when grain was
introduced into the cage, the bird stood up and began to feed greedily. It
remained very quiet for some hours, and then appeared to have completely
recovered from all effects of the treatment.

   January 24th. —An injection of 0.005 gramme of dried venom in 0.5 C. C.
of water was administered. No local action followed, but within ten minutes
after the injection had taken place, slight spasmodic twitchings of the extre-
mities appeared. Very shortly afterwards, however, it got up, and began to
feed greedily when supplied with grain.

   January 27th. —An injection of 0.006 gramme of venom in 0.5 C. C. of
water was administered. No local action whatever, and only very slight
spasms of the affected limb appeared within the course of the following ten
minutes. A quarter of an hour after receiving the injection, the bird got up
and began to feed greedily.

   January 30th. —An injection of 0.007 gramme of venom in 0.5 C. C. of
water was administered. No symptoms of any kind either local or general
followed.

   After this period no effects seemed to be produced by the series of cumu-
lative injections which were administered at intervals of two or three days'
duration, save that the bird gradually became accustomed to associate the
treatment with a subsequent dole of grain, and was consequently in a state of
excited expectancy of the latter.

   The administration of repeated doses of daboia-venom was continued until
the 21st of February, on which date for the second time a dose of 0.0 16
gramme, or four times a minimal lethal dose of venom, produced no appreciable
effects, either acute or chronic, although a similar dose administered to an
unprotected fowl gave rise to violent convulsions and death a minute after the
injection had been effected.

   January 22nd. —A dose of 0.001 gramme of dried cobra-venom, of which
0.00075 constituted a minimal lethal dose, was now administered.

   Symptoms of cobrine intoxication appeared 3½ hours later, and death
occurred 13 hours after the injection had been effected.

   The phenomena which presented themselves in connection with the pro-
gress of this experiment are noteworthy in two respects. In the first place
those which were present during the earlier portion of it clearly indicate that,
then at all events, the administration of progressively increasing doses of
venom did not lead to any disproportionately excessive systemic reactive
manufacture of antivenene, but that the quantity of the antidote actually
available at any one time was very little in excess of that necessary to equili-
brate the effects of an amount of venom equivalent to that present in the