M. MATERIA MEDIC A, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 5 11 



flow of saliva and a great dilatation of the pupils. This ap- 

 peared to be due, in part, to increased sensitiveness to noise, 

 and partly to an impulse to rush around. When the same 

 tests were made with kittens, though there were the same 

 general effects produced, the stage of excitement, which in 

 adults passed off gradually in a few hours, was followed by a 

 condition closely resembling that of alcoholic intoxication, es- 

 pecially in the want of co-ordination of muscular movements. 

 Rabbits, on the contrary, appeared to be affected but little, 

 or not at all. Vomiting was not observed in any of the cases 

 experimented upon. 1 A, June 30, 304. 



FAYKEE OX SNAKE-BITES. 



Our readers will pardon us for having so much to say in 

 reference to supjDosed remedies for poison by snake-bites, but 

 the importance of the subject must be a sufficient excuse, as 

 we are at present adrift in regard to any reliable remedies, 

 those that have been accepted with implicit faith for so many 

 years having proved to be, in the opinion of competent in- 

 vestigators, almost entirely worthless. The method of in- 

 jecting ammonia into the veins, as devised by Dr. Halford, 

 of Australia, and brought forward with so much positiveness, 

 seems, after all, of little or no practical value, at least in oth- 

 er places than Australia. This is shown most conclusively 

 by the detail of a series of experiments, the results of which 

 have been lately published by Dr. Fayrer, of Calcutta, as hav- 

 ing been made with great care. 



The conclusions to which Dr. Fayrer arrives are that, in 

 the present state of our knowledge on the subject, we can do 

 but little in these cases except to neutralize or counteract 

 the action of the poison, while as to antidotes, he has but 

 slight hope of the discovery of any thing that shall prove to 

 be such in the ordinary sense. His experiments were made, 

 of course, chiefly upon lower animals, with a view to test the 

 effects of the poison as administered by himself, supplement- 

 ed by observations of cases where he was called to visit pa- 

 tients professionally. The animals experimented upon were 

 the ox, horse, goat, dog, cat, pig, mungoose, fowls, fish, harm- 

 less snakes, poisonous snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, etc. He 

 found the intensity of action of the poison of different ser- 

 pents to vary quite considerably, that of the cobra, perhaps, 



Bb 



