Definition of "antitoxin" []

• An antibody formed in response to and capable of neutralizing a specific toxin of biological origin. (noun)
• An animal or human serum containing antitoxins. It is used in medicine to prevent or treat diseases caused by the action of biological toxins, such as tetanus, botulism, and diphtheria. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The only U.S. producer of botulism antitoxin, which is cultured in horses, was a 21-year-old Army thoroughbred named First Flight, stabled at the University of Minnesota."
• "One physician may challenge another's faults, ridicule his remedies, call his antitoxin dangerous poison, but their common profession he proudly styles "the most exalted form of altruism.""
• "There are three chief possibilities: (a) that the antitoxin is a modification of the toxin; (b) that it is a substance normally present, but produced in excess under stimulation of the toxin; (c) that it is an entirely new product."