DOCUMENTS 330 
“A girl named Hamida, aged 13, while picking cotton on 
October 7, 1896, at Ghizeh, near Cairo, was bitten in the 
left forearm by a large Egyptian cobra, which measured 3 feet 
in length. She cried out, and her brother and others who were 
working with her ran up. She was brought to hospital by the 
police at 7 p.m. in a state of complete collapse. She was almost 
cold, with upturned eyeballs and imperceptible pulse. The 
forearm had been bandaged with a dirty cloth, and the entire 
arm was covered with a thick layer of Nile mud (a favourite 
remedy among the Fellahin). Above the wrist two deep punctures 
were clearly visible, evidently corresponding to the fangs of the 
reptile. The patient, whose condition seemed absolutely desperate, 
had no longer any reflexes; she was completely insensible; the 
moderately dilated pupils scarcely reacted at all to luminous 
impressions. Dr. Ruffer injected, with the customary antiseptic 
precautions, 20 c.c. of Calmette’s antivenomous serum beneath the 
skin of the abdomen. The child gave a groan while this was 
being done; this was at 7.30 p.m. At 11 o’clock at night her 
condition improved ; the pulse was 140, and bodily heat returned ; 
the patient replied to questions that were put to her. A second 
injection of 10 c.c. of serum was given in the flank. She slept 
for the remainder of the night, and passed her water four times 
under her. At 8 a.m. on October 8 she appeared to be out of 
danger. She took food, and dozed throughout the day. On the 
9th she was convalescent. There were no complications resulting 
from the injection, neither eruptions nor pains in the joints.” 
XV.—Case reported by Dr. Maclaud, of Konakry (French 
Guinea). 
“At 7.30 p.m., on June 22, 1896, there was brought to the 
Konakry Hospital a native soldier, named Demba, who had just 
been bitten by a snake. This man, who was employed in the 
bakery, was stacking firewood, when he felt an extremely acute 
pain in the left foot; simultaneously he saw a large snake making 
off; he succeeded in killing it, and found it to be a black Naja. 
