POISONOUS SNAKES OF NORTH AMERICA. 467 



which had received no reiuediary injectiou died. Ou the third day, in 

 the one treated with chroniic acid the local congestion was red, iii the 

 other two oedeinatous and bhickish. On the fourth day the reddening 

 had ahnost disappeared in the former and no ulceration was to be 

 observed; in tlie dog treated with perinanganate tlie discohtration liad 

 also nearly disai)])eared, but there was a large ulcer, while the one treated 

 with bichloride of mercury had not even improved so much. They after- 

 wards all fully recovered. Kaufmann sums up the result of this experi- 

 ment as follows: This experiment demonstrates that the three agents 

 employed have preserved the animals from death; the bichloride has 

 the inconvenience of producing a caustic action, forming a scar and a 

 wound long to heal; the permanganate, although less destructive, also 

 leaves a wound which takes long time in scarifying, while the chromic 

 acid most completely checked the action of venom without occasioning 

 any cauterization or ulceration. 



The point essentially jiroved by the above experiment is the relative 

 superiority of the chromic acid over the permanganate and the bichlo- 

 ride of mercurj\ 



Three years later. Dr. Albert Calmette, surgeon of the first class of 

 the colonial medical staff and director of the bacteriological institute 

 at Saigon, Cochin China, published a similar series of experiments* 

 with a solution of chloride of gold, ujion the venom of the cobra. He 

 claims to have secured quite a success in saving the animals experi- 

 mented upon, the experiments being conducted very much like those of 

 Kaufmann, by injectiou of the venom mixed with the chemical, and by 

 injecting them separately, the latter as late as five minutes after the 

 former. Very li' tie can be gathered from his experiments as to the 

 efficacy of the chloride of gold in counteracting the local disturbances 

 as compared with that of chromic acid, because of the slight local 

 effects of the cobra venom. Whether the chloride of gold in this respect 

 is the equal of the chromic acid is therefore doubtful, although from the 

 facts that it forms an insoluble precipitate with the venom and that its 

 cauterizing effect is but slight, it may probably be inferred that there 

 is but little difference between them. 



Dr. Calmette has recently t recommended a solution (1 :11) of chloride 

 of lime as superior to the chloride of gold, it being effective up to fifty 

 minutes with rabbits which would otherwise have died in two hours. 



Unfortunately for Dr. Calmette's claim for the efficacy of chloride of 

 gold, an English physiologist, t undertook a series of similar experi- 

 ments with an entirely different result. From his criticism it would 

 appear as if the whole treatment of local neutralization of the venom 



* fitude exp^riuieutale du veuiu de Naja tnpudians, etc. Auu. de I'lnst. Pasteur, 

 Pans, VI, 1892, pp. 160-183; also, Arcli de M(^d. Nav., Pans, lviii, 1892 (pp. 161-190); 

 see also Brit. Med. Jour., Weekly Epitome, 1892, April 23 (p. 67). 



t See McClure s Magazine, III, October, 1894, p, 466. 



i Chloride of Cold as a Remedy tor Cobra Poison, by A. A. Kanthack. Lancet, 

 London, 1892, i, pp. 1296-1297. 



