UNSUCCESSFUL CASES. ^ 



affected centres, and complete paralysis ensued 45 

 hours after the infliction of the fatal bite. 



The first lesson the Australian practitioner should 

 learn from this sad case is that of extreme care and 

 caution in dealing with any case of snakebite, no 

 matter how slight it may appear at first sight. It is 

 not for the first time we have been taught this lesson, 

 though it has rarely, if ever, been conveyed in so 

 singular a manner. Recent utterances about the 

 innocuousness of Australian snake-poison find a fitting 

 answer in this melancholy occurrence. 



The second lesson it conveys is a new one, even 

 to the writer. From the fact of one strychnine injec- 

 tion removing all poison-symptoms early on Monday, 

 but the free use of the antidote failing entirely to have 

 this effect on Monday night and on Tuesday, we are 

 warranted to draw the conclusion that the antidote 

 can only be relied on within the first 24 hours after 

 the bite ; and that, after this period, the snake-poison 

 produces organic changes in the affected nerve-cells, 

 preventing their depressed funiational activity from 

 being restored by the antidote. Further observations, 

 of course, are required to confirm these conclusions. 

 Their correctness, however, appears to be borne out 

 by the fact observed by the writer, that the larger 

 domestic animals, who sometimes linger on for days 

 after being bitten by a snake, usually recover under 

 the strychnine treatment if it is applied immediately 

 or soon after a bite, but die when found and treated in 

 an advanced stage of the malady. 



