332 VENOMS 
“While fastening her door about 10 o’clock one night a Hindu 
woman was bitten by a cobra in the left foot, about 1 inch above 
the metatarso-phalangeal joints of the second and third toes. 
About ten minutes after the bite natives applied three strong 
ligatures, one above the ankle, one below, and one above the 
knee-joint. Four hours later ‘ Fowl’ treatment was applied, which 
it appears gives marvellous results. The author arrived about 
nine hours after the accident, during the ‘ Fowl’ treatment, for 
which nineteen chickens had already been sacrificed. In spite of 
this the patient was pulseless (no radial pulse—the brachial pulse 
was thready and flickering) ; respiration about six per minute. An 
injection of strychnine improved her condition for a few minutes. 
When the incision, which had been made over the bite, was 
crucially enlarged, large quantities of dark blood were withdrawn 
by cupping. In spite of this the patient’s condition grew worse, 
and her respiration fell to three a minute; she then received an 
injection of 10 c.c. of Calmette’s serum in the left buttock. The 
pulse immediately became stronger, and respiration increased to 
ten per minute. About half an hour after the first, a fresh injection 
of 10 c.c. of serum was given in the same place. Within five 
minutes the appearance of the patient, who had seemed to be 
dying, became normal. The pulse grew stronger, and respiration 
was about fifteen per minute. One hour after the injections the 
patient was practically cured. 
“The ‘Fowl’ treatment consists in applying directly to the 
wound, after the latter has been slightly enlarged by means of an 
incision, the anal apertures of living fowls, from which the sur- 
rounding feathers have been removed. The fowl immediately 
becomes drowsy, its eyes blink, and its head falls on its breast with 
the beak open, after which the bird rapidly succumbs. Twenty 
fowls had been employed in the present case, but in vain.” (The 
author does not appear to have troubled himself to ascertain 
Whether the fowls were really dead, or had merely fallen into 
a hypnotic condition.) 
