76 
EXPERIMENTS ON REMEDIES APPLIED AGAINST 
The pills received at different times from Vellore, Madras, and Arcot, varying considerably in colour, I was 
induced to prepare a mass myself, exactly according to the receipt, with a view to discover the cause of these 
variations. The mass so prepared was found of a much darker colour than any of them, owing, I believe, entirely 
to the mercury being more carefully mixed ; for, though it succeeded at last, the mixing the mercury with the 
juice of the asclepias proved a tedious process. To half an ounce of quicksilver, above two ounces of the juice 
were employed ; great part of which evaporated in the course of the process. The arsenic was finely levigated ; 
the roots and pepper were pounded separately ; the seeds were too oily to pass the sieve, but were well mixed 
with the powders, before adding the mercury. 
Four drams of each of the ingredients entered the composition, making three ounces; but the mass when 
prepared, including the juice of the asclepias used in the preparation of the mercury, and in forming the mass, 
weighed four ounces and one dram. 
In the original receipt, the size of the pills is not specified; but on weighing those sent me from Vellore, 
Arcot, and Madras, ten or eleven pills were generally found to weigh one dram ; in which circumstance, they 
agreed with those prepared by myself, when equally dried ; though eight pills only were formed from each 
dram of the recent mass. 
When the mass was prepared, I tried several experiments on sound dogs, and chickens; for though I had given 
the pills before, to empoisoned dogs, it was not certain how far their operation might differ, when not affected by 
the stimulus of another poison. 
The remit was, that two pills given on a fasting stomach, generally produced vomiting and purging, though 
not violent, nor attended with symptoms of much disorder ; and the dog was very well after six or eight hours. 
A dose of four pills produced more evident inquietude, with repeated vomitings, and more violent purging, but 
in twelve hours, the appetite for food returned. 
In chickens well grown, one pill produced repeated purgings, and in two or three hours convulsions and 
death. Half a pill likewise proved fatal, but more slowly. Chickens survived a dose of a fourth of a pill. 
When the pills were given in a liquid form to dogs, they often appeared to produce a burning heat in the 
throat, with a large discharge of saliva ; but this was not observed where the pills were swallowed at once, con¬ 
cealed in crumb of bread moistened. 
In the original directions, the pill is ordered to be powdered and mixed with water. This probably is with a 
view to hasten its operation ; a circumstance of material consequence in cases of the bite of venomous snakes, 
where the progress of the poison is sometimes incredibly rapid. 
I am not, however, certain, whether quickening the operation of the medicine, is the sole reason for ordering 
it to be given in a liquid form ; perhaps something also may be expected from its immediate action upon the 
mouth and throat. Some of the other Indian remedies against poisonous bites, are directed to be only rubbed 
on the palate, or in very small quantity applied to the eye. These, like the present medicine, are also of an acrid 
quality ; and I was informed by a medical gentleman, who, in a case of a woman bitten by a snake, attended 
with the most alarming symptoms, applied one of these remedies in the manner above mentioned, success¬ 
fully ; but that an ophthalmia was the consequence, by which she had nearly lost her eye.* 
-I had no opportunity of trying the Tanjore medicine on the human subject, in cases of bites of serpents ; but 
I have, at different times, given it to fourteen persons bitten by mad dogs. It generally operated upwards twice 
or thrice, and downwards three, four, or five times ; but the retchings neither were violent, nor were the stools 
remarkably griping. In some instances it did not vomit once; and, in two instances only, it purged ten times. 
* An Indian remedy, said to have been originally brought from the Madura country, got into high reputation, by means of the Jesuits at Pondicherry; 
in so much, that there was hardly a French officer in the army who was not provided with a little of it, contained in a very small box, which he carried con¬ 
stantly about him, as an infallible cure for venomous bites. I never saw this remedy tried, which many of the English gentlemen preserved in very minute 
gold boxes; but was informed by Mr. James Bourchier, that he had made at least twenty experiments with it, on sheep bitten in the thigh by the Cobra de 
Capello. The result of his experiments varied very little. All the sheep died nearly in the same manner ; that is, in about twenty-five minutes, they sunk 
down, unable to stand, and in five minutes more expired. 
