DOCUMENTS 335 



"A girl named Hamida, aged 13, while picking cotton on 

 October 7, 1896, at Gbizeh, near Cairo, was bitten in the 

 left forearm by a large Egyptian cobra, which measured 3 feet 

 in length. She cried out, and her brother and others who were 

 working with her ran up. She was brought to hospital by the 

 police at 7 p.m. in a state of complete collapse. She was almost 

 cold, with upturned eyeballs and imperceptible pulse. The 

 forearm had been bandaged with a dirty cloth, and the entire 

 arm was covered with a thick layer of Nile mud (a favourite 

 remedy among the Fellahin). Above the wrist two deep punctures 

 were clearly visible, evidently corresponding to the fangs of the 

 reptile. The patient, whose condition seemed absolutely desperate, 

 had no longer an}^ reflexes ; she was completely insensible ; the 

 moderately dilated pupils scarcely reacted at all to luminous 

 impressions. Dr. Buffer injected, with the customary antiseptic 

 precautions, 20 c.c. of Calmette's antivenomous serum beneath the 

 skin of the abdomen. The" child gave a groan while this was 

 being done ; this was at 7.30 p.m. At 11 o'clock at night her 

 condition improved ; the pulse was 140, and bodily heat returned ; 

 the patient replied to questions that were put to her. A second 

 injection of 10 c.c. of serum was given in the flank. She slept 

 for the remainder of the night, and passed her water four times 

 under her. At 8 a.m. on October 8 she appeared to be out of 

 danger. She took food, and dozed throughout the day. On the 

 9th she was convalescent. There were no complications resulting 

 from the injection, neither eruptions nor pains in the joints." 



XV. — Case reported by Dr. Maclaud, of Konakry (French 

 Guinea). 



"At 7.30 p.m., on June 22, 1896, there was brought to the 

 Konakry Hospital a native soldier, named Demba, who had just 

 been bitten by a snake. This man, who was employed in the 

 bakery, was stacking firewood, when he felt an extremely acute 

 pain m the left foot ; simultaneously he saw a large snake making 

 off; he succeeded in killing it, and found it to be a black Naja. 



