SNAKE-POIS ON LITEEAIXEE. 



81 



the inutility of searching for, I must confess that 

 it did not occur to me that I should find a remedy- 

 in Medicinll Infusoria." Fontana made some ex- 

 periments and found the treatment unsuccessful. 



The subject of snake-poisoning attracted the 

 attention of Dr. Patrick Russell in 1796. His 

 'book, which was published by the Court of Di- 

 rectors of the East India Company, contains 

 drawings and descriptions of several snakes, veno- 

 mous and non-venomous, but principally of the 

 latter. Dr. Russell performed a number of ex- 

 periments with kraits, cobras, daboias, and the 

 Trimeresurus virid, but there is little of import- 

 ance to notice. He brought the famous Tanjore 

 pill very prominently before the public, but it 

 does not appear that he placed much faith in its 

 efficacy. He does not seem to have been very 

 favorably impressed by the knowledge of the sub- 

 ject possessed by the members of his profession. 

 He says : "It was matter of surprise as well as of 

 regret, to find so little known on the medical 

 history of serpents in a country where much might 

 have been reasonably expected. Numbers of 

 stories, it is true, were to be met with, of the fatal 

 effects, as well as of singular cures of venomous 

 bites. But such were in general related from 



Dr Patrick 



Russsell's 



experimeuta. 



Dr. Russell 

 reads his 

 brother pro- 

 fessionals a 

 lesson. 



