Book Description

Excerpt from Snake Venoms: An Investigation of Venomous Snakes, With Special Reference to the Phenomena of Their Venoms My interest in an opportunity to study the subject of snake venom I owe to certain peculiar and fortunate circumstances. After my graduation in medicine, I was for several years connected with the Institute for Infectious Diseases, in Tokio, where I came under the instruction of Professor Kitasato. In the autunm of the year 1900 I became assistant in pathology at the University of Pennsylvania, where I remained until Professor Flexner resigned his post to assume the directorship of the laboratories of the Rockefeller Institute. It was soon after my arrival in Philadelphia that Dr.S. Weir Mitchell expressed his great desire that the scientific study of snake venom should be resumed and prosecuted along the lines of the new biological conceptions of toxication and immunity, which had become at that time so promising a field of pathological investigation. I had, therefore, the good fortune thus early to become associated in carrying out the studies (which extended over several years), relating to snake venom, which were issued from the pathological laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania. The expenditure involved in the execution of the researches of snake venom was met first by Dr. Mitchell himself, and later, chiefly through his recommendations, by means granted from the Bache Fund of the National Academy of Sciences and by specific grants from the Carnegie Institution of Washington. During the several years of my connection with the University of Pennsylvania, I was the recipient of many courtesies from the other members of the staff of the Pathological Department, and from Provost Harrison, Dr. John Marshall, the professor of chemistry, and many others, to whom I wish to express my appreciation. In the interval between my leaving the University of Pennsylvania and resuming my connection with Professor Flexner at the Rockefeller Institute, I spent a year of study on snake venom at the Statens Serum Institute, in Copenhagen. The expenses incurred were defrayed by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. For the opportunity to continue my work in the Serum Institute I am indebted to Dr. Madsen, who has also placed me under many obligations by his constant aid and kindness. I am also indebted for many courtesies to Professor Salomonsen and to Dr. Walbum of the Institute. The present monograph on snake venom was projected a number of years ago, and at first it was intended that it should be devoted to a collection of the studies on venom in which I was more or less directly concerned. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.