364 CLASS REPTILIA. 



An alexipharmic virtue of the same kind has been also attri- 

 buted to theriaca and other analogous electuaries. 



It is very certain that ammoniac admixture, internally and 

 externally, is a most powerful auxiliary in the treatment of 

 the viper's bite. Jussieu tried it with signal success on a 

 pupil, who was bitten by a viper in one of his herboriz- 

 ing excursions. Dr. Piorrey, above cited, relates that an 

 individual bitten by the very same viper that bit the man 

 whose case has been stated, applied to the wound a mixture 

 of oil and volatile alkali, and experienced no ill consequences. 

 What is said here of pure ammoniac applies entirely to such 

 preparations of it as Eau de Luce, &c. 



It has also been often stated that olive-oil possessed un- 

 doubted alexipharmic virtues. To prove the efficacy of this 

 remedy, Mortimer exposed himself to the consequences of 

 the bite of a viper. This courageous experimentalist was 

 visibly benefitted by unctions made with this oil on the abdo- 

 men and on the wound, and by drinking two glasses of the 

 same liquid when the symptoms exhibited the greatest severity. 

 Experiments on this were instituted by the French Royal 

 Academy, and their execution entrusted to two of its mem- 

 bers, Messrs. Geoffroy and Hunauld. They appear to prove 

 that the olive-oil cannot save small animals which have been 

 bitten by the viper, from death, and is of little benefit to the 

 larger in mitigating the symptoms. This, however, has been 

 manifestly contradicted by Mr. Miller, in the case of the 

 crotalus, so much more dangerous than our viper; and 

 this ought to stimulate observers to new researches on the 

 subject. 



When all the means which we have enumerated prove in- 

 efficacious, recourse should be had to stimulants administered 

 internally, to increase the action of the heart and vessels, and 

 the general energy of the vital forces, to bring on a copious 

 diaphoresis, and direct the action of the system from the 



