French veterinarian Cesaire Auguste Phisalix and chemist Gabriel Bertrand, and separately French physician Albert Calmette, announced in 1894 that an animal could be protected against snake venom by injecting it with serum taken from an animal already immunized against that venom, a discovery presented to the Societe de Biologie in Paris on February 10, 1894. Calmette, working at the Pasteur Institute, carried the discovery furthest toward practical use, immunizing horses with venom from the Indian cobra and producing a serum that became the first commercially available antivenom. The breakthrough translated the still-new theory of induced immunity into a working treatment for a form of poisoning that had previously been almost untreatable, and antivenom remains on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines today.
Facts
Discovery Year Discovery Date Classification
Type/Classification FAQs
Who discovered that serum could protect against snake venom?
Phisalix and Bertrand, and separately Calmette, announced it in 1894.
Cesaire Auguste Phisalix and Gabriel Bertrand, and separately Albert Calmette, announced in 1894 that an animal could be protected against snake venom by injecting it with serum taken from an animal already immunized against that venom. The discovery was presented to the Societe de Biologie in Paris on February 10, 1894.
How did Calmette turn the discovery into a treatment?
He immunized horses with cobra venom and made the first commercial antivenom.
Calmette, working at the Pasteur Institute, carried the discovery furthest toward practical use. He immunized horses with venom from the Indian cobra and produced a serum that became the first commercially available antivenom. Antivenom remains on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines today.
Connections
Associated With
Antivenom is the direct treatment discovery associated with snakebite envenoming.
Discovered By
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Antivenom
Wikimedia FoundationHistory section, February 1894 session
at the same session of the Society of Biology in Paris on February 10, 1894, Albert Calmette at the Pasteur Institute
entity description, Discovery of Antivenom
French veterinarian Cesaire Auguste Phisalix and chemist Gabriel Bertrand, and separately French physician Albert Calmette, announced in 1894 that an animal could be protected against snake venom by injecting it with serum taken from an animal already immunized against that venom, a discovery presented to the Societe de Biologie in Paris on February 10, 1894.
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