148 OPHIDIANS. 
prevent me from falling into a comatose condition. There 
was also deprivation of sight, which attained its maximum 
about two hours after being bitten.” 
Mr. Hodgkinson we all know is no ordinary man, and I 
have no doubt that his intellectual activity or will, coithebated 
to save him. ; 
Professor Halford then recommends injecting dilute am- 
monia, an old and favorite remedy, he says, the world over; 
but not to be put into the stomach, the stagnating vessels of 
which cannot absorb, but injected into the blood itself. 
On the latter point, viz., that the vessels of the stomach 
cannot absorb quickly, almost every homceopathic practitioner, 
who has had even a limited practice, would join issue with 
the Professor ; for the facts are, that sometimes medicines under 
certain conditions, do produce the most extraordinary results 
in a few seconds in some cases, in a few minutes in others; 
by being introduced into the stomach, and it is quite evident 
that such results could only be produced by absorption. 
The action of preparations of the gall taken into the stomach 
produces effects precisely similar to the preceding in cases of 
snake-bites ; whether these preparations would be more effi- 
cacious in hypodermic injections I cannot say, but a series of 
experiments is being carried out in India at the present time 
(January, 1873), to test this point with Cobra poison. We 
must also remember that different snake-poisons develop 
different symptoms. 
The Yellow-mouthed Viper (Vipera Lachesis os flavus) of 
South America, producing, for example, suffusion of blood to 
the face and head; veins of conjunctiva distended ; patient 
complains of heat, of great pain in the bitten part, great thirst; 
eyes have a wild look, are very sensible to the light; in many 
cases the sight is partially destroyed, and there is a discharge 
