CURARE AND OTHER CURES FOR HYDROPHOBTA., 185 
icine, in which Bromide of Ethyl was used with fatal results which he lays at the 
door of this aneesthetic, and he expressed an opinion that Bromide of Ethyl was 
adapted to long operations, where there is renal disease: Dr. Sims not having 
investigated the matter, speaks very cautiously about thisnew agent. Dr. J. Ott, 
of New York says ‘‘ that the results of his experiments with Bromide of Ethyl, 
show that its action is upon the gray matter of the nerves, also that it decreases 
the frequency of respiration by acting upon the central nervous system while 
increasing the pulse rate and augmenting the blood by direct influence upon the 
heart. Out of several hundred administrations only one case was fatal, and that 
occurred during an operation of great magnitude. ‘This and the fact that the 
Bromide of Ethyl appears to be free from some of the objectionable characteristics 
of chloroform and ether, renders it worthy of thorough investigation. 
CURARE AND OTHER CURES FOR HYDROPHOBIA. 
There was published in Zhe World a little while ago an interesting communi- 
cation from Dr. John W. Green on the subject of ‘‘ Hydrophobia and Woorara”’ 
—curare, in which he said that experiments had led him to the belief that the 
proper dose of the substances used hypodermically was about the thirteenth of a 
grain, a dose that was to be repeated often till the proper effects were produced. 
The woorara, he said, quieted spasms and reduced a!) nervous irritability, thus 
giving the system time to eliminate the hydrophobic virus, and as to its use, he 
added : 
During the past three years some of the physicians connected with the 
German hospitals have reported a few cases where this remedy has been tried. 
In all but one case complete recovery ensued, and in the case that ended fatally 
I imagine from the report of it that the woorara was not used faithfully and 
understandingly. If it will, however, save 50 per cent. of those attacked, it is 
better than losing all of the affected. In taking account of the cases reported 
which I have seen, making altogether four, there has been one death. ‘This is a 
percentage of 75 in favor of woorara. 
More recently, an article in the same paper states that Dr. Etheridge, of 
Chicago, has been experimenting with curare—the secret of manufacturing which, 
by the way, Jovert bought last year from the Amazonas Indians—upon a hydro- 
phobic patient, with what success we are unable to say as yet. According to the 
German papers, Dr. Offenberg, of Dusseldorf, has cured a woman bitten by a 
mad dog by a hypodermic injection of twenty centigrammes of the agent; on 
the other hand a Russian experiment has failed almost signally. Nine persons — 
were bitten by a rabid wolf in the hamlet of Bogoljubow, in the Wladimir dis- 
trict, and were taken to the hospital, where five of them died in dreadful agony 
soon after their admission. The doctors resolved to try curare in the other 
cases. This was administered at Wladimir to the remaining four persons who 
had been bitten by the wolf, and they all died, but without experiencing the 
