378 CLASS REPTILIA. 



treatment generally adopted in India for wounds of this 

 kind. 



Having dressed the wound, many practitioners are in the 

 habit of administering a purgative lavement, and a potion 

 consisting of two drams of Fowler's arsenical solution, of 

 ten drops of Thebaic tincture, an ounce and a half of pep- 

 per-mint water, and half an ounce of lemon juice, put in at 

 the moment in which the potion is given, which the patient 

 should swallow during the slight effervesence then produced 

 in the mixture. 



The arsenical solution of which we speak, is an arsenite 

 of liquid potash, two drams of which contain a grain of 

 arsenic and the same of potash. 



This potion is to be repeated each half hour for many 

 hours in succession, and in the meantime the suffering parts 

 are frequently to be rubbed and fomented with a liniment, 

 composed of half an ounce of oil of terebinthine and liquid 

 ammoniac, and an ounce and a half of olive-oil. The treat- 

 ment is concluded by keeping the bowels free for a few days, 

 and dressing the wound in a suitable manner. 



The pills of Tanjore are also an Indian preparation greatly 

 in vogue, for the cure of the bite of the naja and other 

 venomous reptiles in general. Russell does not inform us of 

 their composition, but he tells us that the arsenious acid 

 constitutes their basis, and that a six-grain pill contains 

 somewhat less than three-fourths of a grain of it. These 

 pills are, perhaps, the same which the Indian physicians 

 employ in the treatment of elephantiasis, the receipt for 

 which has been given us by Dr. R. Thomas, of Salisbury. 

 In them arsenic is combined with pepper in proportions of 

 one part of arsenic to six parts of black picked pepper. 

 These two substances, to which are added, in a receipt given 

 by Daudin, quicksilver, almonds of Newalan, and roots 

 from Velli-navi and Neri-visham, are pounded for a consi- 



