HYDROPHOBIA TREATED BY THE POISON OF THE VIPER. 555 
of the whisker of a cat poisoned by strychnia, or merely blowing 
upon her hair, would produce violent convulsions. The mere 
breathing on a snake, into whose tail some strychnia had been 
introduced, was followed by similar effects. No remedy was of 
avail, and even the most powerful ones that had been employed, 
such as large doses of opium, in the cases recorded by Babington 
and Graves, were of no service. 
A Member referred to a case published a few months ago, 
in The Lancet , in which the application of ice to the spine 
seemed to have a marked effect on the convulsions. The case 
occurred in the practice of Dr. Todd, at King’s College Hos- 
pital. 
Mr. Chance stated that Mr. Mayo had recommended the em- 
ployment of tracheotomy in cases of hydrophobia ; for, should the 
disease not be cured by the previous proceeding, time would be 
allowed for the action of remedies. 
Mr. Snow suggested the employment of aconite, as that was 
known to be the best antidote to strychnia. 
Dr. Chowne entered at some length into the subject. He dwelt on 
the advantages possible to result from the employment of remedies 
in this disease, on merely experimental principles. It was useless 
to go over the ground which had been trodden before. The most 
common morbid appearances in cases of hydrophobia were the 
loading of the pulmonary tubes with froth, and an emphysematous 
state of the lungs. In two cases in which he had examined the 
spine, no morbid appearances were observable in that region. He 
had seen extreme hysteria simulate, in some respects, even hydro- 
phobia. 
[This interesting discussion took place at the Westminster 
Medical Society, on Saturday, April 13, 1844.] 
HYDROPHOBIA TREATED BY THE POISON OF THE 
VIPER. 
PRINCE- Louis Bonaparte, it appears, has been able to separate 
the active principle of the poison of the viper, which he has named 
echidnine. He has made the result of his labours known in a 
memoir, which he read before the chemical section of the congress. 
In this memoir he proposes echidnine as a remedy for hydrophobia, 
and gives an account of an experiment that was made, at his 
request, at the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, at Florence. 
Six vipers were made to bite a patient labouring under hydro- 
