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Page 66
Carefully and thoroughly Kennedy and Nagoya went over the results
which Kennedy had already obtained. After a moment Doctor Nagoya
conducted us to his research room.
"Now let me show you," said the Oriental.
In a moment they were deep in the mysteries of an even more
minute analysis than Kennedy had made before. I took a turn about
the room, finding nothing more understandable than the study
holding Kennedy's interest. Though I could not grasp it,
curiosity kept me hovering close.
"You see"--Nagoya spoke as he finished the test he was making at
the moment--"without a doubt it is crotalin, the venom of the
rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus."
"There was no snake actually present," I hastened to explain,
breaking in. Then at a glance from Kennedy I stopped, abashed,
for all this had been made clear to the scientist.
"It is not necessary," Nagoya replied, turning to me with the
politeness characteristic of the East. "Crotalin can be obtained
now with fair ease. It is a drug used in a new treatment of
epilepsy which is being tried out at many hospitals."
I nodded my thanks, not wanting to interrupt again.
Kennedy pressed on to the next point he wished established. "That
was the spot on the portieres. Now the ampulla."
"Also crotalin." Doctor Nagoya spoke positively.
"How about this solution?" Kennedy took from my package the tube
with the liquid made from the faint spots on the towel which I
had found and which had been our first clue. "It is not
crotalin."
The Japanese turned to his laboratory table.
Kennedy muttered some vague suggestions which were too technical
for me but which seemed to enable Nagoya to eliminate a great
deal of work. The test progressed rapidly. Finally the savant
stepped back, regarding the solution with a very satisfied smile.
"It is," he explained, carefully, "some of the very anticrotalus
venin which we have perfected right here in the institute."
Kennedy nodded. "I suspected as much." There was great elation in
his manner. "You see, I had heard all about your wonderful work."
"Yes!" Nagoya waved his hand around at the wonderfully equipped
room, only one detail in the many arrangements for medical
research made possible by the generosity of Castleton. "Yes," he
repeated, proud of his laboratory, as he well might be, "we have
made a great deal of progress in the development of protective
sera--antivenins, we call them."
"Are they distributed widely?" Kennedy asked, thoughtfully.
"All over the world. We are practically the only source of
supply."
"How do you obtain the serum in quantity?"
"From horses treated with increasing doses of the snake venom."
A question struck me as I remembered the peculiar double action
of the poison. "Can you tell me just how the antivenin
counteracts the effects of the venom?" I inquired of the savant.
"Surely," he replied. "It neutralizes one of the two elements in
the venom, the nervous poison, thus enabling the individual to
devote all his vitality to overcoming the irritant poison. It is
the nervous poison that is the chief death-dealing agent,
producing paralysis of the heart and respiration. We advise all
travelers to carry the protective serum if they are likely to be
exposed to snake bites."
Kennedy picked up the tube containing the solution made from the
towel spots. "This antivenin was your product, doctor?"
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