392 CURE OF THE BITE OF A SERPENT. 27 Oct. 
death, in case he should happen to get loose, they first pricked him 
in the breast with one of their poisoned arrows. After this thev 
continued, with dreadful barbarity, practising on their miserable 
victim acts of cruelty too horrible to be related ; till at length, 
the accumulation of pain and torment, terminated the wretched 
man's existence. 
21th. Maagers came to me this forenoon, in much distress, to ask 
medical advice for his child, of about two years old, who had been 
bitten by some venomous reptile or insect, supposed to be either 
a spider, a scorpion or a snake, while playing on a heap of dry reeds. 
I hastened to the spot, and found the child apparently dying : his 
body had swelled rapidly ; the limbs were growing stiff ; and a con- 
vulsive blackness had spread over the face. Below the pit of the 
stomach, I discovered two slight punctures within an inch of each 
other, which put me out of all doubt as to what might have occa- 
sioned the state to which the child was reduced. For these could 
have been made by nothing else than the two fangs of a snake ; but 
of what species it might be, we were unable to guess. The 
venom was judged to have pervaded the system, and the symptoms 
appeared all of the extreme kind ; yet although it was looked upon 
as a hopeless case, I could not omit trying a remedy in which 
I should have had great confidence, if so much time had not 
been lost. 
I immediately forced the child to swallow ten drops of the solu- 
tion of ammonia* in two ounces of water ; and, having with a pen- 
knife scarified the parts around the wound, which operation, however, 
drew very little blood, I bathed the place with a mixture of the 
same medicine prepared of four times the strength. In five minutes 
after this, another draught was administered ; and in about ten 
minutes afterwards, a slight vomiting ensued : but whether occa- 
sioned by the medicine, or by the poison, it is uncertain. As I 
attentively watched the progress of the remedy, I saw within the 
* IJquor Ammoniee of the London Dispensary. 
