577 
SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT OE TRAUMATIC TETANUS BY 
THE WOORARA POJSON. 
We have already noticed the effects produced by the above 
agent, in the experiments performed by the late Professor 
Sewell with it in cases of tetanus in the lower animals. (See 
p. 139, vol. xxxi.) 
M. Vella, of Turin, arguing from the fact of woorara being 
a direct sedative of the motor nerves, has undertaken a 
series of experiments which clearly show the antagonism 
between it and strychnia. 
In two patients, suffering from tetanus arising from gun¬ 
shot wounds, he tried the woorara. By it the muscular sys¬ 
tem generally was relaxed, and the patients for a time expe¬ 
rienced relief ; but ultimately they died. In a third case he 
was more successful, as the patient got well thirty-six days 
after the first application of the poison. 
M. Vella’s manner of using it consists in dissolving it in 
water, in the proportion of two grains of woorara to nine 
drachms of water, increasing the quantity gradually to seven 
or eight grains. Compresses are moistened with this solu¬ 
tion, and kept constantly applied to the wound, renewing 
them every third hour at first, but less frequently as the 
disease yields. 
NEW NEEDLE FOR THE WIRE SUTURE. 
Mr. G. Murray has invented a new form of needle for 
passing the wire suture, which is very simple in its construc¬ 
tion. It is of the ordinary shape, but the wire, “ instead of 
being passed through an eye at right angles to the long axis 
of the needle and doubled back, passes along a conical canal, 
the larger end of which is at the side of the instrument, the 
smaller end opening at the heel of the needle. By the simple 
expedient of turning the smallest possible piece of wdre upon 
itself, the wire is prevented from escaping.” 
COMPRESSED EOOD FOR HORSES. 
M. Nanden, Veterinary Surgeon to the Imperial Guard, 
has compressed food for horses into small tablets. The plan 
adopted by him is as follows :—The hay and straw are 
chopped fine, the oats crushed, and these being mixed in the 
necessary proportions, upon the mixture is poured a mucilage 
of linseed, and the whole is then subjected to pressure. 
It need hardly be stated that this plan is of immense ser¬ 
vice by economising space. 
XXXII. 
76 
