UNSUCCESSFUL CASES. 73 



ones, mostly of children, it was undoubtedly due to the 

 snake-poison not being properly checked by the anti- 

 dote. The gentlemen who officiated on these occasions 

 were evidently not Banerjees, but the very reverse of 

 their Indian confrere. They do not appear to have had 

 very clear ideas of the absolute antagonism existing 

 between the two poisons, and entirely disregarded the 

 most important point in the treatment, namely, the 

 necessity of administering the antidote until it has 

 completely subdued the snake poison, regardless of the 

 quantity that may be required for that purpose. In a 

 few instances the treatment was correct enough at first, 

 but when, as is often the case, a relapse took place 

 after the patient had apparently recovered, the large 

 quantity of the antidote already administered appears 

 to have given rise to the erroneous notion that it 

 would be useless to resort to it a second time, and thus, 

 through this error and the fear of strychnine-convul- 

 sions, the patients were allowed to die. In most of the 

 six fatal cases collected by the writer, however, the 

 doses and total quantities given were altogether inade- 

 quate to cope with the poison. They did probably 

 more harm than good, for the snake-poison when only 

 partially checked by strychnine seems to renew its 

 onslaught on the nerve-cells even more insidiously 

 than when not interfered with at all. Convulsions 

 also, as shown in cases, are sometimes called forth by 

 this timid use of the antidote. 



A few instances will show the correctness of these 

 observations. Thus an old woman sleeping in a shed 



