OF THE VENOM OF THE RATTLESNAKE. 1 ] ;} 



Antidotes considered with reference to tlie 83'stcm at large, are ofonl}' two kinds. 

 Those which meet the poison in the vessels of the economy, and tlien and there 

 chtmicalhj alter it, so as to destroy its potency, and those which, like most of our 

 medicines, are absorbed, circulate, and counteract the effects of the poison. Thus a 

 sedative may counteract a stimulant, and vice versa, and each would, in this sense, 

 be for the other a physiological antidote, but would in nowise correspond with the 

 popular conception of an antidote. 



The remedies which still hold repute as antidotes are few in number. They are 

 ammonia, olive oil, arsenic (as the Tanjore pill), Bibron's antidote (Bromine), and 

 alcoholic stimuli. 



The pretensions of ammonia in this connection have been long since settled by 

 the experiments of Fontana on Vipers, and of Brainard on CrotaJophorus. I have 

 also tested its supposed utility in cases of animals poisoned by Crotalus venom, and 

 it will answer our present purpose to add that it failed almost uniformly. Notwith- 

 standing the continued faith still reposed in it by some, and the cures attributed to 

 its use, I am convinced that it has no powers which alcohol does not enjoy to a superior 

 degree, and I feel equally sure that its exhibition should never be allowed to sup- 

 plant the use of other and better stimulants. That it has no value as a chemical 

 antidote, the experiments elsewhere related in this paper sufficiently prove, if proof 

 were wanting. 



Olive oil is another remedy which has been gravely urged and has received the 

 support of numerous successful cases. What these are worth, or with what allow- 

 ance they should be entertained, has, I trust, been set in clear light by the general 

 argument which I have founded on all the cases which I have analyzed. After 

 the exj)eriments of Fontana on its use in Viper poisoning, it is strange that the 

 most confident should have dared to employ it again. 



Arsenic, unlike olive oil, certainly does not belong to the class of expectant 

 remedies. Its use in snake-bites comes from the East, where as the " Tanjore 

 pill" it attained great celebrity. 



This well-known medicine is composed of arsenious acid, three East Indian roots, 

 two of which ai'e purgative, and one an acro-narcotic, mixed with pepper and the 

 juice of the wild cotton plant. Tw© of the pills, containing each three-fourths of 

 a grain of the arsenic, are given at once, and one at the close of an hour, a rather 

 formidable dose of so active a medicine. Russell (p. 65), who examined this 

 remedy, was riot satisfied with it, nor am I aware that it has retained its celebrity, 

 or that any one has used it in Rattlesnake bite. 



Bibron's antidote is a more novel remedy, of the value of wiiich I am not fully 

 prepared to judge. Its history is rather curious. Mr. Xantus obtained it in the 

 first place from Prince Paul, of Wurtemberg, the well-known traveller and natu- 

 ralist. This gentleman stated that it had been invented and employed by Prof. 

 Bibron, of Paris, but neither Mr. Xantus or Dr. Hammond has been able to find 

 any printed account of it, nor have I been more successful. The chief evidence in 

 its fixvor rests upon a considerable number of experiments made by Dr. Hammond 

 and Mr. Xantus, and upon three cases reported by the same observers. Mr. 

 Xantus states one fact which I have been thus far unable to verify, namely, that 

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