370 VENOMS 
lower. The reflexes had disappeared. There were still a few 
slight muscular contractions near the base of the chest, and the 
patient quietly passed away at 11.5 p.m., as the result of the 
progressive arrest of the heart’s action, respiration itself having 
virtually disappeared two hours before the heart had ceased to beat. 
Case III.—A week after this sad occurrence, another snake- 
charmer, Kingilien by name, aged 25, was bitten in the first 
phalanx of the right forefinger, when taking hold of a cobra in 
the courtyard of the Pondicherry Hospital. Refusing an injection 
of antivenomous serum, the man ran off as fast as he could go, 
after having a simple ligature applied to his wrist. Scarcely had 
he reached his dwelling, when he fell into a deep coma, in which 
condition he was carried to Cottacoupom, to the abode of one 
Souraire Kramani, a kind of sorcerer, who administered to him a 
certain medicament in a betel leaf. After having vomited a large 
quantity of bile he was taken home. At this time, according to 
the summary investigation that we caused to be made, the patient 
was unable to utter a single word; he could only open his mouth 
with difficulty, and his eyelids remained closed. Kingilien, who 
had partially regained consciousness, seemed to be suffering from 
continuous attacks of vertigo; his head, if pushed to one side, 
drooped, and the man was incapable of voluntary movement. 
Respiration was fairly easy, swallowing painful. The entire hand 
was greatly swollen; poultices of leaves were applied to it, after 
a few incisions had been made with a knife in the back of the hand, 
in order to reduce the congestion. The arm was rubbed from above 
downwards with the very bitter leaves of the Vémbou, or mango- 
tree, and prayers were recited. This is all the information that I 
have been able to obtain with reference to this man, who, after 
a prolonged convalescence, is said to have recovered (?). 
Case IV.—One Latchoumanin, aged 25, also a snake-charmer, 
of Caradicoupom, was bitten at the Hospital at 10 a.m., on August 2, 
while handling a cobra. The bite was situated in the second joint 
of the right thumb. After it had bitten the man, ten drops of 
venom were extracted from the reptile’s glands. 
