DOCUMENTS 355 



" At 7 a.m. on January 19, 1897, G., aged 22, was going along 

 a footpath near Trouvaillant, when he was bitten in the left 

 external malleolus by a Trigonocephalits which was rutting (a cir- 

 cumstance which, according to the natives, aggravates the character 

 of the bite). 



"After killing one of the reptiles (the other having escaped), 

 the young man made his way to the detachment of gendarmery 

 stationed close by. The officer in command applied a ligature 

 to the upper part of the leg, cupped the man a few times, and 

 sent information to us at the Military Hospital. On reaching 

 the spot at 9.15 we found, on the postero-inferior surface of the 

 left external malleolus, two small wounds resembhng those caused 

 by the bite of a snake. The leg was swollen and painful, and the 

 patient could hardly put his foot to the ground. 



" At 9.30, after taking the usual antiseptic precautions, we gave 

 an injection of Calmette's anti-venomous serum, from a bottle 

 dated December 26, 1896. Not having any hypochlorite of calcium 

 at our disposal, we washed the wound with a 1 in 60 solution of 

 hyposulphite of soda, and apphed a dressing of carbolic gauze. An 

 hour later the patient was taken to Saint Pierre in a carriage. 

 Temperature 37'2" C. No vomiting, or tetanic phenomena. In 

 the afternoon the pain was , less acute, and the oedema seemed 

 to have diminished a little. Mercurial ointment rubbed in. 



" Four days later the patient, being cured without having had 

 the least rise of temperature, proceeded to the country. 



" This case is interesting, since a single dose of antivenomous 

 serum (20 grammes), injected two hours and a half after the 

 accident, sufficed to cure a young man bitten by a Trigonoceplialus 

 measuring 1 metre 20 cm. in length." 



M.— Crotalus horidus. 



XXXVIII.— Case recorded by Dr. P. Kenaux, of Piriapolis, 

 Uruguay (La Trihuna popular, Piriapolis, December 14, 1898). 



