OP THE VENOM OF THE RATTLESNAKE. 1()5 



la the majority of cases, the slight mental disturbance now passes away, and the 

 mind remains singularly clear to the close, whatever the event may be. In other 

 instances, as in Dr. Harlan's case, delirium, restlessness, and insomnia are present, 

 but in general the nervous symptoms of this and of the earlier stage of the malady 

 are confined to slight incoherence, and to rare sensory delusions. 



The state of the secretions and discharges seems to have been thought of so little 

 moment, that in most of the cases they are not even alluded to. For example, the 

 state of the urine is not spoken of in any one instance. The vomiting is so fre- 

 quent and so enduring a symptom, that it is more constantly referred to ; but of 

 the character of the evacuation thus effected, we learn almost nothing. From the 

 fact that in some of the cases the reporter states that it was necessary to give a 

 purgative to complete the cure, we may, perhaps, infer that in the milder cases, 

 at least, no diarrhoea occurred. In two of the fiital cases, diarrhoea came on late 

 in the disease, and in one we are told that the stools were of a dark bilious cha- 

 racter, but beyond this we are left in ignorance. 



Four fatal cases are found in the table. Of these, the most rapid was that of 

 the medical man, reported by Dr. Post (Table, Case No. G) ; the malady ending 

 in death by coma, within five hours and a half. This was the nearest approach 

 to a case of acute or simple primary poisoning, which we have met with in man. 



M. Pihorel's case (Table, Case No. IG) died quietly in about nine and a half 

 hours, without loss of intellect, but with a rapidly increasing difficulty of breatliing 

 and swallowing. 



Dr. Horner's case (Table, Case No. 4) terminated about eighteen hours after the 

 bite was inflicted. One or two hours before death, the patient had a genei-al 

 convulsion, with involuntary evacuation from the bowels, but without any foaming 

 at the mouth. He appears to have regained his senses after this time. Just 

 before he expired, he complained of pain in the colon, said he felt sleepy, closed 

 his eyes, and died quietly without agony, and without convulsions. 



In the third of the fatal cases. Sir E. Home's (Table, Case 12), the sufferer 

 rallied from the primary poisoning, and died on the seventeenth day, with well 

 expressed typhous symptoms. 



The duration of the various cases, and their mode of recovery or death, is of 

 considerable interest. If we analyze the table of sixteen cases, we shall find that, 

 as I have just stated, the four ftital cases terminated in five and a half hours, nine 

 hours, eighteen hours, and seventeen days respectively. If, again, we analyze these 

 four cases with respect to the question of death from primary or secondary poison- 

 ing, we shall discover that Case No. 12 (Home's) survived not only the early effects, 

 but also, to a great extent, the constitutional affection, and perished in the effort to 

 get rid of the gangrenous arm. 



On examination, the blood proved to be coagulable. It is probable that the 

 blood had survived the infected condition, and was gradually regaining its normal 

 standard. 



Case No. 4 (Horner) seems to have been a fair representative of those instances 

 of Crotalus poisoning which I have termed secondary or chronic. The patient 

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