74 
EXPERIMENTS ON REMEDIES APPLIED AGAINST 
they have also shown how little several other applications (though highly recommended) are to be depended on ; 
as quick lime, magnesia, caustic alkali, absorbent earths, calcined hartshorn, neutral and sea salts, &c. &c. 
He speaks more doubtfully of the application of hot oils, particularly oil of turpentine ; and of immersion of 
the limb into hot lime water, salt water, or even plain water,* 
Cantharides administered internally; Peruvian bark ; and emetics ; though certainly not specifics, could not 
(according to Fontana) be pronounced absolutely useless : but he found scarification, as well as the actual cau¬ 
tery, to be rather prejudicial -f 
The only remedies established, by his experiments, as effectual, under certain limitations, were amputation 
and ligature; on both which, some remarks will be found in the following Section. 
I shall conclude the present Section with an account of the Tanjore pill, the only internal remedy used in the 
foregoing experiments. 
It was communicated to me by Mr. Duffin, at that time surgeon to the garrison of Vellore, a gentleman of 
most respectable character, afterwards chief surgeon at Fort St. George, and now in England. 
The following is an extract from his letter, dated January, 1788, with which I was favoured, in consequence 
of a general invitation for information on the subject of serpents, circulated on the coast of Coromandel, under 
the recommendation of the Board of Madras. 
“ Having lately seen your public memoir on the subject of snakes, I take the liberty of sending you the for¬ 
mula of a remedy which has been used with success in the bites of all poisonous animals, even of mad dogs. 
I procured it through the medium of the Rev. Mr. Swartz, who had influence with a native of Tanjore, to im¬ 
part it for a pecuniary consideration. 
“ The deleterious quality of the arsenic was not the only objection to using it; for I was also given to under¬ 
stand, that two of the other ingredients, the velli-navi and the neri-visham, were poisonous roots ; and the third, 
the nervalam, was a drastic purge. All these three are found in every bazar in this part of the country, but, 
on account of their poisonous qualities, cannot be purchased without the knowledge of an officer of the police. 
They are indigenous on the Malabar coast, and used in composition, by the native practitioners, in a variety of 
diseases, besides those from animal poisons. 
“ I was assured by Mr. Swartz, that, to his knowledge, the medicine had been used repeatedly; that no alarm¬ 
ing symptoms occurred from it; and that it never failed in effecting a cure, when given in time, before the 
poison had affected the whole system.” 
Mr. Duffin then gave the histories in detail of two cases, in which he himself had successfully given the medi¬ 
cine ; and added, “ I have since administered the pills to thirty or forty patients bitten by different kinds of 
snakes, some of which were probably innocuous: as I seldom had occasion so give more than two pills, and 
that at an interval of fourteen or fifteen hours ; the cases being attended by no alarming symptoms. The 
pills generally occasioned a nausea and purging, but seldom in a violent degree.” 
“ Receipt for the composition of the pills for the cure of venomous bites. 
“ White arsenic ; roots of velli-navi; roots of neri-visham ; kernels of nervalam ; pepper ; quicksilver ;—of 
each an equal quantity. 
“ The quicksilver is to be rubbed with the juice of the wild cotton, till the globules become invisible. The 
arsenic being first levigated, and the other ingredients reduced to a powder, are then added, and the whole is 
beaten up together, with the juice of the wild cotton, to a consistence fit to be divided into pills.” 
DIRECTIONS FOR USING THE SNAKE PILLS. 
“ If a person is bit by a Cobra de Capello, mix one of the pills with a little warm water, and give it to the 
patient. After waiting a quarter of an hour, should the symptoms of infection increase, give two pills more; 
t lb. 
* Traite, Tome II. p. 8. 
