STRYCHNINE, A USELESS REMEDY 

 IN SNAKE-BITE. 



By T. L. BANCROFT, Wl.B., Edin. 



[Bead before the Royal Societi/ of Queensland, Sept. 19th, 1890.] 



Dr. Augustus Mueller, of Victoria, has asserted that strychnine 

 is an antidote in snake-bite, and that no medical man in 

 Australia now can treat a case of snake-bite other than by 

 his method without incurring the charge of culpable ignorance. "'' 

 I am not aware that either Dr. Mueller or anyone else has tested 

 the value of strychnine in snake poisoning upon the lower animals. 

 It is further quite probable that the cases of snake-bite in human 

 subjects treated by him would have recovered had no di'ug been 

 administered at all. It is so extremely improbable that any 

 substance is capable of counteracting the effects of snake venom 

 that I deemed it prudent to make the following investigation. 

 The venom of snakes when smeared upon glass and dried in the 

 sun will keep good indefinitely. The poison glands of the black 

 snake {Pseudechis iwrphijruicm) were removed immediately after 

 the snakes were killed, put upon a watch-glass in an exsiccator 

 containing anhydrous chloride of calcium, where they were 

 allowed to remain until required for use. The dried poison gland 

 when pounded in a mortar is found to give up all its venom in 

 the form of a fine white powder ; the fibrous wall of the gland 

 remains intact. The venom in this form is convenient to weigh. 

 The amount required is mixed with a little • water, five to ten 

 drops, and squeezed through a piece of linen, the clear fluid 



* Vide " Australasian Medical Gazette," April 15, 1890. 



