SUCCESSFULLY TREATED. 317 



In the famous Tanjore pill, mentioned by the ingenious Doctor Pat- 

 rick RussEL, as being in such estimation on the coast, for the cure of the 

 bite of the serpent, we find arsenick is an ingredient, a stimulus of so 

 powerful a nature, that it destroys life, on common occasions, in a very mi- 

 nute quantity. In this disti'i6l, the natives use the stimulus of heat; it being 

 a common pra6lice with them, to place near a strong fire persons bitten 

 by snakes. They also administer ardent spirits, and hot spices internally; 

 and further compel the patient to take as much exercise as he possibly 

 can. It is worthy of remark, that the remedies they thus make use of, 

 from the experience and observation of ages, in countries where accidents 

 from the bite of serpents must be particularly frequent, should tend to 

 confirm the principle of cure I have pointed out from my case, namely, 

 that of excitement from the use of stimuli. 



It were foreign to such a communication as this, to enter into a discus- 

 sion of the several opinions that have been entertained, of the nature of the 

 poison of the serpent, and of the particular manner in which it acts, upon 

 being received into the human body. The many experiments, that have 

 been made with it, upon various animals, have tended only to establish 

 the degree of its virulence in the different species of serpents;, for the 

 subjects of these experiments, being unable to communicate what they felt 

 ^nd suffered from the poison, whatever opinion was formed, of the manner 

 in which it acted, is entirely conjectural; and accordingly, every writer, 

 who has made it the object of his inquiry, has left it in the original state 

 qi uncertainty, in which he found it. 



H 4 



