68 
EXPERIMENTS ON REMEDIES APPLIED AGAINST 
Experiment II. October 17, 1787.-A Katuka Rekula Poda, which had just before killed a chicken and 
two dogs, bit a rabbit on the shoulder, the fur having been previously plucked off. Half a pill was given im¬ 
mediately after the bite, and the other half was rubbed on the punctures. No flux of saliva followed. 
The leg became paralytic in ten minutes, but the animal continued to move about, and to lie down, alter¬ 
nately. After forty minutes, it grew torpid, drowzy, and was hardly able to move. Convulsions succeeded, and 
the rabbit expired: an hour and a half after the bite. 
Experiment III.-The day following, a slender dog was bitten by the same snake, and a pill was 
attempted to be given, but not more than one half was swallowed. Nothing was applied to the part. There was 
no discharge of saliva. 
The dog frequently licked the punctures, when let loose. In seven minutes, the leg was drawn up; in seven 
more, he seemed much disordered, and lay down. In twenty minutes, the limb was paralytic; through most of 
. the second hour he was heavy and much disposed to doze. After three hours, he fed heartily, and next day was 
very well; though he had not entirely recovered the use of his limb. 
Experiment IV, April 24, 1788.-Having received some fresh pills from Tanjore, it was judged proper, 
previously to recommencing experiments on infected dogs, to make trial on a healthy subject, in order the 
better to discriminate their effects, from the symptoms of poison. 
One pill, weighing nearly seven grains, rubbed down and mixed with water, was given to a slender bitch, 
and as she was properly secured, the whole dose reached the stomach. The throat was evidently affected by 
the medicine; for the bitch continued, for a quarter of an hour, with her mouth open, panting, drawing in 
the fresh air, and working her jaws and throat, as if expressing and swallowing the saliva; the mouth of the 
stomach was next affected, with arising, without retching, or vomiting. All this time, the animal expressed 
much inquietude, rolling frequently on the ground, and breathing quick; it refused water, and reluctantly 
stood up. After half an hour she vomited, and in the course of another half hour, she vomited twice more. 
This was followed by a copious bilious stool, after which she became much quieter, and in two or three hours 
more was very well. 
Observation. -The medicine produced no discharge of saliva, as in Exp. I. the secretion was indeed 
increased, but the spittle was swallowed as fast as it came into the mouth. 
Experiment V. April 25.-The bitch, mentioned in the preceding experiment, was again bitten on 
both thighs, by a Katuka Rekula Poda. The snake bit fiercely, the bitch seemed to suffer much pain, and 
urined copiously. 
When let loose, she seemed to be relaxed universally, and sunk down, the hind legs were completely paralytic, 
she lay along, unable to raise the head, while the mastoide and other muscles about the throat, were convulsed 
to such a degree as drew the head down to the breast: a circumstance never observed before, nor had I ever 
observed so instantaneous an appearance of alarming symptoms. 
In this desperate state, it was thought fruitless to try any remedy; but a pill being already broken and 
mixed with a spoonful of boiled rice, it was given, and washed down with a little water, five minutes after 
the bite. 
Neither a discharge of saliva, a burning in the throat, nor retching were observed : yet the convulsion of the 
neck continued, and the limbs remained paralytic. 
Half an hour elapsed without any sensible effect of the pill, but the animal seemed more depressed, and the 
convulsive motions of the neck were more feeble. In fifty minutes from the bite, the bitch expired, not in 
convulsions, but by a gradual sinking. 
Observations. -The present case I conceived to be one of those, in which the poison acts so rapidly, 
as to leave no time for the effectual operation of any remedy. That the pill did not operate in half an hour, 
might perhaps have been owing to the defect of sensibility in the system: to which also, as well as to the 
mode of giving the medicine, might be ascribed the absence of the burning in the throat, remarked in the 
preceding experiment. 
