106 PIIYSIOLOC.Y AND TOXICOLOGY 



never rallied completely from the depressing effect of the venom, but he was found 

 after death to have a perfectly incoagulable blood. 



Case No. 10 (Pihorel) died in nine and a half hours. It seems to have ended 

 before the blood lost its coagulability, so that, although the veins of the bitten arm 

 contained but little clotted blood, large coagula of loose structure were found in 

 the main venous vessels of the trunk, and in the right auricle. 



Case No. 6 (Post) was not examined after death. Of the remaining twelve 

 cases of the table, all recovered within variable periods. Where the patient was 

 several days or longer indisposed, the delayed recovery was usually due to the 

 local lesions, rather than to prolonged constitutional malady. 



In connection with the history of the amelioration or cure, in almost every case, 

 we are struck by one fact, which is of singular value, because its neglect has led 

 to almost every one of the fallacies attending upon the use of the supposed anti- 

 dotes which have attained to a local or general notoriety. If the reader will glance 

 at the Table of Crotalus poisoning in man, and at the column headed " Mode of 

 Recovery," he will observe that in almost every case the relief from urgent symp- 

 toms was sudden, and the completed cure almost nearly so. If, again, he will 

 look at the column in which are grouped the constitutional symptoms, he will 

 certainly feel some astonishment at their gravity in relation to the character of the 

 convalescence. So extraordinary was this contrast, that within a few hours, or 

 a day in most cases, the patient, whom the physician regarded as almost moribund, 

 went on horseback to see him, or was able to move about the house, or engage in 

 his ordinary avocations. The general practical inference will at once suggest itself, 

 upon an examination of the numerous and varied remedies employed. It will then 

 be seen that, under the most different systems of treatment, the several cases grew 

 better, or entirely recovered, with equal abruptness. Are we not driven to the 

 absurd conclusion that each and every remedy is equally useful, or to the more 

 logical inference that sudden relief and rapid recovery are peculiarities which belong 

 to those cases of Crotalus bite in which the amount of venom injected has not been 

 so unusually large as to insure a fatal ending? 



The bearings of these conclusions upon the study of antidotes require but little 

 comment, and must at once suggest themselves to every thoughtful physician. It 

 is almost needless to add that the reporters have usually assumed the suddenness 

 of the cures to be due in each case to the peculiar therapeutic means employed. 



I have already described the local consequences of the bite. The various reports 

 make no mention of constitutional results succeeding recovery. One very curious 

 statement, however, is found in connection with case No. 5 (Phillips). The 

 patient, a female, was suffering when bitten, from a severe attack of hooping-cough, 

 of which she was suddenly and completely cured by the effects of the venom. 



P. M. Section. — The three cases of post-mortem examination offer very little, 

 save negative information, as to the character of the lesions. 



The Head. — Dr. Ilorncr found the brain of a healthy consistence, but congested 

 so that the cortical substance was of a deep brown tint. A good deal of serum 

 oozed from the cut surfaces. About a drachm of transparent serum was present in 

 each lateral ventricle. The medulla spinalis was healthy; its tunica arachnoidea 



