56 CASES. 



— last but not least — Dr. Bannerjee's eight Indian cases. They are 

 all well authenticated, being mostly taken from the Australasian 

 Medical Gazette or from private notes, but to avoid jiseless repetition 

 the greater part of them will be merely cited and only the more re- 

 markable ones be given in detail. Whether, in the face of this 

 formidable array of evidence that blind incredulity and senseless 

 opposition, usually blocking tlie way of every new discovery, will at 

 last give way, remains to be seen. The writer has had his full share 

 of them, and but for the valuable aid he received from the Hon. Dr. 

 Creed, the able editor of the A. M. Gazette, would probably be 

 struggling yet for (he introduction of his antidote. When it is con- 

 sidered that, in spite of such evidence as here produced, his discovery 

 has as yet received no official recognition from any of the Australian 

 medical authorities, and that even now there are medical men who 

 can write such effusions as that of Dr. T. L. Bancroft, of Brisbane, 

 beginning with the words : " It is deplorable to still see recorded 

 cases of snakebite treated with strychnine, ifec," (see Gazette for July, 

 1892) — the attitude assumed from the first by Dr. Creed and his un- 

 failing advocacy of the antidote can hot be too highly appreciated 

 and lay both the writer and the public under a debt of deep gratitude 

 to him. But for his early recognition of the soundness of the writer's 

 theory and treatment of snakebite many valuable lives now saved 

 would have been lost. As early as June, 1889, Dr. Creed wrote in 

 an editorial : " We desire to call the special attention of the pro- 

 fession to Dr. Mueller's papers on the pathology and cure of snake- 

 bite, published in our issues for Nov., Dec, Feb , April and May 

 last, and to press upon them the justice and, we submit, tiie necessity 

 of extremely careful consideration of his theory and of the results 

 shown in the cases in which, acting on it, he has used hypodermic 

 injections of strychnine for the treatment of snakebite. We formerly 

 expressed our concurrence in the opinion of Sir Joseph Fayrer, who 

 wrote : ' I do not say that a physiological antidote is impossible, all 

 I assert is, that it is not yet found.' We are indeed pleased to state 

 that we believe such an antidote is now found and that Dr. Mueller 

 is the happy discoverer. We are of opinion that his theory as to 



