THE NAUTILUS. 119 



and "pins and needles " beginning in the arm and becoming gen- 

 eralised through the body, and to a more marked degree there was 

 a disappearance of muscular sensation and a complete absence of 

 knee jerks. The patient constantly asked where her limbs were. 

 Utterance was thick and indistinct. The respiratory and cardiac 

 muscular apparatus did not at any time participate to a danger- 

 ous degree in the paralysis. The stomach, however, may have 

 been effected, for I could not induce vomiting. When at its worst, 

 some three or four hours after the poisoning began, the con- 

 dition distinctly affected the throat, and a good deal of distress was 

 caused by the difficulty in removing accumulated fluid. The poison 

 seemed to me to clearly belong to the class of which curare is the 

 type. Of this I felt assured as soon as I had examined the patient 

 and observed the freedom of the respiratory and circulatory centers 

 from its actions compared with the absolute abrogation of voluntary 

 muscular paralysis, so that, the patient weighing 16 odd stone, I felt 

 a good deal of anxiety as to whether the arms would not dislocate 

 at the shoulder when the body was lifted in the chair by the bands 

 under the armpits ; indeed it was exceedingly difficult to move the 

 patient, all the parts being so abnormally yielding. The treatment 

 I adopted was merely directed to the maintaining of life till the poi- 

 son should have been destroyed. The heart and lungs were quite 

 equal to their work if other circumstances could be kept favorable. 

 This was done by placing the patient in a semi-recumbent position 

 in a canvas chair, and by keeping the head in such a position that 

 breathing and swallowing were facilitated. I should have liked to 

 relieve the circulation by inducing vomiting, but failed to do so- 

 Had I had strychnine with me, I should have injected it hypodermic" 

 ally, but I did not feel justified in leaving the patient to get it. The 

 worst was past in about six hours. The wound was made about 9.30 

 p. m. Paialysis lasted on with steadily diminishing intensity till late 

 next day, but the numbness lasted considerably longer in the injured 

 finger, and for a month after the patient experienced a shock in the 

 little finger on hard impaction as in playing the piano. This was 

 the last symptom to clear up, unless the sore eyes, which began and 

 lasted later, are to be attributed to this poison as their cause. 

 Though natives declare that recovery from fish poisoning is often 

 complicated by sore eyes, yet I am not aware that the tradition 

 would apply to this kind. I have heard since of other cases of this 



