﻿328 ON THE CURE OF 



The man recovered in the course of a few hour?. As 

 oil is frequently administered as a remedy in the bite 

 of snakes, I think it necessary to caution against the 

 u:e of it with the volatile alkali, as it blunts the sti- 

 mulating quality of the spirit, and renders it useless. 



Of the numerous species of snakes which I have 

 met with, not above six were provided with prisonous 

 fangs; though I have eXimined^nany which have 

 been considered by the natives as/dangerous, without 

 being able to discover any thing noxious in them. 



The following is an instance of the deleterious effect 

 ,of the bite of a snake, called by the natives Kra'it. a 

 species or the Boa, w ich I have frequently met with 

 in this part of the cpuntry : — 



CASE VII. 



On the 1 6th Septejnber 1788, a man was brought 

 to me who had been bitten by a snake, with the marks 

 of two fangs on two of his toes ; he was said to have 

 been bitten above an hour before I saw him : he was 

 perfectly sensible, but complained of great pain in 

 the parts bitten, with an unusual languor. I imme- 

 diately gave him thirty drops of the volatile caustic 

 alkali spirit in water, and applied some of it to the 

 wounds. In a few minutes he became easier, and in 

 about half an hour was carried away by his friends, 

 with perfect confidence in his recovery, without hav- 

 ing taken a second dose cf the medicine, which indeed 

 did not appear to have been necessary ; but, whether 

 from the effect of the bite of the snake, or the motion 

 of the dooly on which he was carried, I know not ; 

 but. he became sick at the stomach, threw up the me- 

 dicine, and died in about a quarter of an hour af- 

 ter. The man said that the snake came up to him 



