TBEATMENT OF POISONOUS SNAKE-BITES 261 



solution), recommended by Kaufmann^ for the bite of the common 

 viper. 



No other effect is produced by a 1 per cent, solution of chloride 

 of gold, or the alkaline hypochlorites, which I have shown to 

 possess a strong oxidising action on the different venoms, even on 

 those that are most rapidly diffusible, such as cobra-venom (see 

 Chapter V.). They possess, however, owing to their slight causti- 

 city, the advantage of not producing severe local disorders, and 

 in this respect they are to be preferred. 



The chemical reagent most to be recommended is hypochlorite 

 of lime, in a fresh solution of 2 grammes per cent., and containing 

 about 90 c.c. of chlorine per 100 grammes. It immediately and 

 surely destroys the venom by simple contact, and the chlorine gas 

 that it gives off, owing to its great diffusibilitj^, acts at a fairly long 

 distance from the point of inoculation on the venom which is 

 already beginning to be absorbed. 



Professor Halford, of Melbourne, advises the direct injection 

 into the patient's veins of from 10 to 20 drops of ammonia, diluted 

 with an equal quantity of distilled water. This is a means of 

 reviving nervous excitability in certain subjects at the commence- 

 ment of intoxication ; but torpor soon reappears, and, if the dose 

 of venom inoculated is sufficient to cause death, a fatal ending takes 

 place notwithstanding. Experimentally the effects of ammonia 

 are nil. 



No better results are obtained by injections of strychnine, as 

 recommended by Dr. Mueller, in Australia. Moreover, the 

 statistics published by Easton Huxtable^ positively condemn this 

 therapeutic method. They show that, in 426 cases of snake-bite, 

 out of 113 treated by strychnine 15 proved fatal, the ratio of 

 mortality being 13'2 per cent., while the 313 cases not treated 

 by strychnine only resulted in 13 deaths, or a mortality of 4'1 

 per cent. 



' "Levenin de la vipfere," Paris, 1889. 



^ Transactions of the Third Intercolonial Congress, 1892, p. 152. 



