74 tNStJCCBSSS'UL CASES. 



is awakened at daylight by a tiger snake having 

 fastened on to her wrist. She pulls off the snake, 

 alarms the neighbours, and a doctor, living only a mile 

 away from the place, is sent for. He appears on the 

 scene four hours afterwards, when complete coma and 

 collapse has set in, makes two injections of gr. i\ each, 

 which of course had no effect and the patient is allowed 

 to die. without any further effort on the part of her 

 medical attendant. Case 2. — A boy of 10 years is 

 admitted to a N. S. Wales hospital in a state of com- 

 plete collapse, barely alive, having been bitten by a 

 brown snake 22 hours before admission. Instead of a 

 rousing injection of at least 15 minims and the same or 

 smaller ones repeated at short intervals, he receives 

 only 5 minims of liq. strychnise P.B. every twenty 

 minutes, when death was imminent, and dies 65 

 minutes after admission. Case 3 is also that of a boy 

 in an hospital. He is admitted fully conscious and 

 apparently but slightly under the influence of snake- 

 poison, for a five minims injection is reported to have 

 removed the symptoms. On the following day, how- 

 ever, he became comatose, and instead of having the 

 antidote freely administered, gets only one more injec- 

 tion of five minims and dies in coma. Case 4 is even 

 worse. A little girl of 3 years, bitten by a tiger snake, 

 receives three minim injections every half -hour, and 

 after three of them, whilst in a state of complete coma, 

 gets convulsions. These are attributed to the strych- 

 nine, which thereupon is withheld, the finale being 

 death in coma. 



