CASES. 



If the deductions and conclusions set forth in the 

 foregoing chapters are correct, it may be justly con- 

 tended that all cases of snakebite treated with 

 strychnine should invariably end in recovery if the 

 antidote is properly applied, according to the rules 

 above detailed. This contention the writer fully and 

 cordially endorses. Given the largest amount of poison 

 a snake can give off at one bite, strychnine injected in 

 time and sufficient quantity — either by the hypodermic, 

 or, if urgent, by the intravenous method — must rouse 

 the dormant nerve-cells into action, as long as the vital 

 functions are not completely extinct. Wherever it 

 fails, the fault lies with the operator not injecting it 

 in sufficient quantity — a fault committed by the writer 

 himself in his first case. 



The following condensed accounts of fifty cases 

 treated in Australia, and eight in Tndia, the writer has 

 taken mostly from the Australasian Medical Gazette. 

 Two of these only are from his own practice ; others 

 were kindly communicated to him by his colleagues. 

 It is not claimed that all these cases were rescues from 

 certain death. Some of them undoubtedly were, others 

 would have recovered under some other treatment or 

 no treatment at all ; but in none of them would 



