292 VENOMOUS SNAKES AND THE PHENOMENA OF THEIR VENOMS 
of blood pressure. In America some cases were reported where strychnine 
and brandy had been given with success, although no therapeutic value of 
this substance could be confirmed in these cases. According to Elliot, 
strychnine has no stimulating action upon the cases where the patients are 
in an aphasic state. 
Raston Huxtable * collected 426 cases of snake bite, of which 113 were 
treated with strychnine, with 15 cases of death, a mortality of 18.2 per cent, 
while 313 without strychnine resulted in 13 cases of death, the mortality 
being only 2.4 per cent. 
Although Fontana rejected it as quite worthless, ammonia enjoyed much 
reputation as an antidote against snake bite for many years without, how- 
ever, any definite experimental verification. The strongest advocate of 
ammonia as an antidote against venom poisoning was Halford, who recom- 
mended the injection of 10 to 4o drops (diluted with 2 to 3 parts of water) of 
ammonia into the vein in all cases of snake bite. Yet the injection of ammonia 
is by no means harmless, but is often followed by serious complications, 
such as phlebitis, perivascular necrosis, etc. Experimentally ammonia is 
entirely powerless to delay the usual course of toxication with venom. There 
may still be certain physicians who adhere to this worthless traditional am- 
monia treatment, but its practice should be discontinued. 
Alcohol, in the forms of wine, whisky, and brandy, has been freely admin- 
istered by physicians, perhaps partly encouraged by the popular belief ascrib- 
ing certain cases of recoveries of snake bite to their use, although there is no 
solid foundation whatever for this notion. Certain investigators recommended 
the use of alcoholic beverages with the supposition that the absorbed venom 
is partly secreted from the stomach and this can be precipitated by the alcohol 
before its reabsorption. But, as we all now know from experiment, alcohol 
precipitates but does not impair the toxic properties of the venom, hence 
alcohol administered per os can have no value as an antidote. Indeed, it 
was shown long ago by Mitchell and Reichert that in animal experimenta- 
tion, at least, alcohol has a distinctly injurious influence and quickens death 
from venom-toxication. It is, therefore, not advisable to prescribe whisky 
or brandy in the cases of snake poisoning. It is certainly harmful to give 
alcohol in any excessive quantity. 
Certain diaphoretics, e.g., Folia jaborandi and philocaspin, have also been 
recommended with the view of eliminating venom, but in reality such would 
be of no avail. In some cases, where alcohol was given, stomach-irrigation 
was practised with the hope of removing the precipitated venom. 
In the case of violent excitement, potassium bromide, morphia, and other 
narcotics have often been used. 
Rogers recommends the administration of adrenalin chloride in the case 
of bites from Daboia and those snakes the poisons of which have a marked 
paralytic action on the vasomotor center. 
1 Huxtable. Transaction of Third Intercolonial Congress, 1892, 152. 
