76 .UNSUCCESSFUL CASES. 



snakebite, and no ligature is applied until the poison 

 has been absorbed and overpowers her. Instead ot 

 sinking into coma, she becomes unconscious for a short 

 time only. Her brain then clears itself, and all symp- 

 toms seem to disappear so completely that when a 

 medical man of undoubted ability and skill sees her a 

 few hours after the bite, she declares herself quite well 

 again, and does not appear to require any treatment, 

 least of all that by strychnine injections. She passes 

 a good night, but on Monday morning symptoms de- 

 noting paresis of the respiratory and glosso-pharyngeal 

 centres make their appearance, almost identical with 

 those described by Indian writers as following cobra- 

 bite. She has difficulty in breathing and swallowing, 

 but one injection of joth of a grain removes it com- 

 pletely and speedily, and once more all danger is 

 thought to be past. On Monday evening, however, 

 dyspnoea and dysphagia appear again in an aggravated 

 form. The urine also becomes scanty and loaded with 

 albuminates Strychnine now is again resorted to, but 

 it fails to act as before, and from hour to hour the 

 young lady's condition becomes more critical. When 

 the writer reached her on Tuesday afternoon, 42 hours 

 after the bite, paralysis of the centres named was 

 imminent, and her case appeared a hopeless one, unless 

 a vigorous use of strychnine yet turned the scales in 

 her favour. One-tenth grain doses were therefore 

 injected every half-hour, and continued until the 

 physiological action of the drug showed itself. This 

 took place, but failed to have the least effect on the 



