POISONOUS SNAKES OF NORTH AMERICA. 471 



strychniue was most earnestly tested and enthusiastically indorsed by 

 Dr. Mueller's followers, while his antagonists of the old school went to 

 the other extreme of denouncing the subcutaneous injection of the 

 drug in snake venom cases as being of equal value to so much water. 

 The medical journals of the colonies from that time on are full of the 

 controversy, which soon spread to India. 



The opposition gleefully recorded several cases of death in spite of 

 the administration of strychnine. In addition they clamored for a 

 series of experiments upon animals by which the theory could be 

 " scientifically " tested, at the same time pointing out that the exi)eri- 

 ments which had so far been undertaken did not seem to support Dr. 

 Mueller's contention. 



These criticisms Dr. Mueller has met by explaining in an apparently 

 satisfactory manner why in the fatal cases reported the treatment had 

 failed, it being mostly due to the fact that not enough strychnine had 

 been administered. As to the experiments on animals, it was con- 

 tended that the physiological effects of strychnine upon man and the 

 various kind of test animals is so different that no safe conclusions 

 can be drawn, and tliat, moreover, the numerous tests afforded by the 

 cases of human beings having been bitten and saved from death by 

 the administration of the strychnine is the best possible proof of its 

 efficiency. 



From an article recently published (Australas. Med. Gaz., Sydney, 

 XII, December 15, 1893, pp. 401-403) it will be seen that the opposition 

 to the strychnine treatment is on the wane and that the Governments 

 of Australia and India are alive to the importance of Dr. Mueller's dis- 

 covery. The latter, in his recent book,* furthermore states that he 

 knows from good authority that Sir Joseph Fayer, the president of the 

 medical board at the India ofiBce, the celebrated authority on snake 

 poison, and author of the monumental work "The Thanatoj)hidia of 

 India," has recommended to the English Government the adoption of 

 the strychnine treatment of snake bite in India. It is but fair in a 

 case like this to render the results of Dr. ^Mueller's discovery in his 

 own words. Hence the following quotations from his book, which I 

 have deemed it essential, should be as full as practicable, especially 

 since his work has so far received but little attention in this country: 



It is self-evident from precediug statemeuts that in the treatment of snake bite 

 with strychnine the ordinary doses must be greatly exceeded, and that its adminis- 

 tration must be continued, even if the total quantity injected within an hour or two 

 amounts to what in the absence of snake poison would be a dangerous, if not a fatal, 

 dose. Timidity in handling the drug is fraught with far more danger than a bold 

 and fearless use of it. The few failures among its numerous successes recorded 

 during the last four years in Australia were nearly all traceable to the antulote not 

 having been injected in sufficient quantity. Even slight tetanic convulsions, which 

 were noticed in a few cases, invariably passed off quickly. It should be borne in 

 mind that of the two poisons warring with each other, that of the snake is by far 



"Snake Poison and its Action. Sydney, 1893, p. 70. 



