OF SNAKES ON THE HUMAN BODY. 
SI 
specific in destroying the quality of the poison, as by counteracting the effect on the system, by stimulating the 
fibres, and preserving that irritability which it tends to destroy.” 
It is to be regretted, that Mr. Williams had not been more precise as to the extent of his experience, and 
that the selected cases had not been more circumstantially related. In two of them, a ligature had been ap¬ 
plied ; in three of them, the symptoms do not appear to have been formidable ; and of the seven cases, one 
only proved fatal. 
The volatile alkali, as a specific against the poison of the viper, was brought into vogue at Paris, in conse¬ 
quence of its supposed success in a case related in the History of the Academy of Sciences for 1747; and was 
supported theoretically, on a supposed acid property of the poison ; an opinion at first propagated by Dr. Mead, 
but relinquished by him in the sequel. 
The subject was again revived at the distance of ten or twelve years, in a book written by M. Sage of the 
Royal Academy, who proceeded, as if on the authority of Dr. Mead, in an opinion which he did not know that 
the Doctor had long before retracted. 
The Abbe Fontana, in consequence of a number of experiments made with the volatile alkali on various ani¬ 
mals, gives his most decided opinion against its utility, and even suspects it of having done harm* He thinks 
the instances produced of its good effects on the human subject, of doubtful authority; and argues strongly 
against the possibility of its acting by its alkaline quality, when applied externally to the skin ; showing, from 
several experiments, that it cannot penetrate the skin, so as to act on the acid quality of the poison, was that 
even admitted to exist. 
I11 so far as the volatile alkali (according to Mr. Williams) is supposed to act merely as a stimulant, the 
Abbb’s objections apply with less force, at least to giving it internally; but the use of its external application, 
unless it be supposed to act on the quality of the poison, seems very doubtful. 
Case VII.-“ The porter of Mr. Bourchier, Governor of Bombay, a very stout Arab, was bitten by a 
small serpent, and expired almost instantaneously, after exclaiming that a snake had bit him.” 
The above account I had from the Governor’s son, Mr. James Bourchier, who spoke from memory; and 
added, “ that the snake, to which the man's death was imputed, was, by the Portuguese, called Cobra de 
Morte ; that in the course of twenty years in India, he had only seen two of them, one on the island of Bom¬ 
bay, the other in his own house at St. Thomas’s Mount, near Madras. That the length of the snake was from 
six to nine inches; its thickness that of a common tobacco pipe. The head black, with white marks, bearing 
some resemblance to a skull, and two cross bones. The body alternately black and white, in joints, the whole 
length ; that its venom is of all others the most pernicious.” 
Case VIII.- “ A Gentoo boy in the service of an English officer of the army, had been forbid by his mas¬ 
ter to smoke tobacco. The gentleman returning one morning from shooting at an earlier hour than was ex¬ 
pected, alarmed the boy, who happened at the time to be smoking a chirroot (segar). In eagerness to extin¬ 
guish the chirroot , and conceal his offence, the boy run to an old wall behind the house, and thrusting the burn¬ 
ing chirroot into a hole in the wall, was bitten in the hand. He exclaimed loudly; and his master, with a ser¬ 
vant, running to know what had happened, found the boy hardly able to give an account of what had befallen 
him : in a very short while after, the boy expired. 
The snake was not found. The gentleman did not pretend to be precisely exact as to time, but was pretty 
confident that from the time of the boy's exclamation till his death, not more than ten minutes could have 
elapsed. 
Observations. -1 have produced the last two cases, though very incomplete, as affording instances of 
death remarkably sudden. In Case IV. the Sepoy expired within six hours after the bite; which agrees nearly, 
as to time, with the few fatal accidents I heard of while in India. A man bitten at Vizagapatam, a few days 
after my arrival, died in less than twelve hours ; but, the accident happening at night, it was not known what 
serpent had bit him. 
* Traitc sur iePoison.de laVipere, Tom. I. p. 97; et Tom. II. p. 237. 
