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History of Snake Venom Research

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Snake Venoms

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 52))

Abstract

In ancient civilizations, the snake embodied the spirit of the earth. It was god and at the fount of all cosmogonies. According to the beliefs of the Egyptians, Atoum, the snake, after leaving the primordial waters, gave the day to the gods, who, in their turn, created Geb and Nout, the air and the earth. Atoum was “the one who remains,” i.e., the one who was “on this side” and the one who will be “beyond.”

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Boquet, P. (1979). History of Snake Venom Research. In: Lee, CY. (eds) Snake Venoms. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 52. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66913-2_1

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