In 1894, two scientists used snake venom to create the first antivenoms

A snake bite in the late 19th century offered little certainty about what would happen next. There were attempts to counter venom with chemicals and other remedies, but no established treatment could directly neutralise the poison. Then, in France in 1894, two research teams arrived at a very different idea. Albert Calmette, working within the Pasteur Institute tradition, and Césaire Auguste Phisalix with Gabriel Bertrand at the National Museum of Natural History, independently showed that blood serum from immunised animals could protect against snake venom. Their experiments were presented to the French Society of Biology on February 10 that year. The discovery marked the beginning of antivenom serotherapy, although the credit for it would later become unevenly distributed.A deadly cobra in Saigon pushed Calmette towards a new treatmentAlbert Calmette's route towards antivenom began in French Indochina. After meeting Louis Pasteur in Paris in 1890, Calmette was invited to organise vaccination work at the Pasteur Institute's newly established branch in Saigon. There he encountered the effects of the Indian cobra, Naja naja, and began investigating ways of countering its venom.The s...