Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeuticsCalmette, A. (Albert)
Science
Venoms: Venomous Animals and Antivenomous Serum-therapeutics
Calmette, A. (Albert)
Antitoxins; Poisonous snakes; Toxins; Venom
“On February 9, 1898, I was summoned to the Town Council’s Camp to
treat a native who had been bitten by a berg-adder in the left leg,
just below the knee. I immediately injected a dose of Calmette’s
antivenomous serum in the left flank, and the wounds were washed. The
injection was given two and a quarter hours after the accident. The
patient was already very ill when I saw him, and I have no doubt that,
without the antivenomous serum, he would have died.
“On the following day he had recovered, and I saw him again three
months later; since then he has not experienced any functional trouble.”
F.--Hydrophiidæ (Sea-Snakes).
XIX.--Case recorded by Mr. H. W. Peal, Indian Museum, Calcutta (_Indian
Medical Gazette_, July, 1903, p. 276).
“On April 1, 1903, at 7.30 p.m., a man was bitten at Dhamra, in
Orissa, by a sea-snake which had been caught in a fishing net. He was
not brought to me until 2.30 the next day, when he was in a state of
collapse, semi-unconscious, and unable to speak, with eyes dull and
almost closed. The bite was on the third finger of the left hand, just
above the first joint. The finger was swollen, tense, and stiff. I gave
the man an injection of 5 c.c. of antivenene ten minutes after he was
brought to me. Three or four minutes after the injection the man with
some assistance was able to sit up, and said he felt much better. He
complained of great pain at the back of the neck and also in the lumbar
region. He was able to speak fairly coherently after a little time. His
eyes were brighter and he seemed to be aroused from his lethargy.
“I had about one hundred living sea-snakes with me, belonging to the
three genera _Enhydrina_, _Hydrus_, and _Distira_. He identified
_Enhydrina valakadien_ as being the snake which bit him; so did the men
who were with him. The snake was said to be about 3½ to 4 feet long.
“The antivenene did the man so much good, that he himself asked me to
give him a second injection. This I gave him at 2.25 p.m. (5 c.c.).
“Date on bottle used, May 8, 1900.
“The pains in the joints had disappeared on the second injection
(which was given in opposite flank). At 5 o’clock the man walked away
with assistance. He was quite well a couple of hours after the second
injection, and when I saw him again on May 8 he was in perfect health.”
G.--European Vipers (_Pelias berus_ and _Vipera aspis_).
XX.--Case published by Dr. Marchand, of des Montils, Loir-et-Cher
(_Anjou médical_, August, 1897).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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