272 Uvularia perfoliata as a remedy for Poisoned Wounds. 



gest the expediency of making trials of analogous plants so widely 

 diifused among us, and so easy to obtain in larger quantities, as 

 Yeratrum viride, and Helonias lutea and dioica. 



Case— Mount Carbon, July 22 : 2, P. M. Called to visit S. 

 B., five years old, said to have been bitten by a rattlesnake. Dr. 

 Wetherill politely accompanied me. According to her father, she 

 was walking with him three hours previously, picking whortle- 

 berries, when the father trod on a snake, which immediately bit 

 the child. On being questioned, the persons present acknowl- 

 edged that the serpent. in question was less than three feet long, 

 that they had not heard it; rattle, and that they had not killed it, 

 and therefore had no opportunity of examining its appearance. 

 As the effects of the bite were violent, it was presumed that it 

 was inflicted by a copper-head, (Trigonocephalus contortrix, of 

 Dr. Holbrook,) which was the only snake known in the vicinity 

 likely to combine the above conditions. 



A company who walked to the spot two days after, found the 

 body of a copper-head in a state of decay, which might easily be 

 attained in such an interval. It had been, notwithstanding the 

 above statements, killed b}^ a blow across the back, and was fur- 

 nishing a repast to a number of large black beetles, observed to 

 gnaw the bodies of snakes. 



A strip of white ash bark was bound firmly round the limb 

 above the knee ; and at some subsequent period, a quantity of 

 Uvularia perfoliata, bruised with vinegar and salt, was applied 

 round the vicinity of the bite. Under this treatment the wound, 

 at first intensely painful, became quite free from pain unless 

 touched. It continued to feel numb. 



The limb was enormously distended with an oedematous swel- 

 ling, extending as high as the ligature ; masses of effused blood 

 were visible, deeply seated in the top of the foot and in several 

 parts of the leg, particularly at the middle of the fore part. The 

 skin was white, shining, and cold. One puncture only was visi- 

 ble, situated about two inches above the instep, and surrounded 

 by a dark red circle. I could only explain the appearance of a sin- 

 gle puncture by supposing, that the snake struck the child while 

 disordered in its movements by the pressure of the parent's foot. 



A cup was sent for, but when obtained proved too large to ad- 

 here to the limb. Suction was made forcibly by the -bowl of a 

 tobacco-pipe for half an hour ; at the end of which time, several 



