MAN’S FIGHT FOR LIFE

Taranaki Daily News, 22 January 1935, Page 12

MAN’S FIGHT FOR LIFE

SCIENTIST’S SUFFERINGS. COBRA VENOM INHALED. The dramatic story of a scientist’s sufferings since he inhaled dried cobra venom three years ago was told recently to the convention of the World Narcotic Defence Association in New York by the president, who was explaining the absence of Dr. A. Monae-Lesser, who was to have given an address. Dr. Monae-Lesser was born in the Isle of Man 79 years ago, and after going to school in Manchester and studying on the Continent, became a naturalised American in 1922. While a surgeon with the American Red Cross in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, he encountered the case of a leper who had apparently been cured after being bitten by a tarantula-spider. This led him to develop the theory, now well known, that the venom of certain insects and snakes might act as an anaesthetic. His research resulted in his appointment to the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Three years aog he was travelling from Geneva to Paris when a. fellow-passenger kicked his suitcase, which burst open. A little box of dried cobra venom fell on the floor of the carriage, and the powder was spilt. Fearing that it would endanger the lives of tlie other. passengers, the scientist swept up the deadly stuff with his hands, and in doing so inhaled some. The venom changed the chemical content of his. blood, and ever since he has been fighting for his life, often in great pain, and has only been kept alive by constant blood infusions.