SNAKE BITE AND ITS ANTIDOTE. 
22i 
be accepted without further experiments by various persons, and 
in 1882 Dr. G. Badolini, of Bologna, repeated Lacerda’s experi 
ments and signally failed. Mr. Vincent Richards, of Calcutta, 
who had been a member of the Snake Poison Commission in 
India, having learned of de Lacerda’s studies, at once instituted a 
series of experiments to verify if possible the statements made, 
publishing his conclusions in the Indian Medical Gazette , Cal¬ 
cutta, XVII., I., 57, 85. He is of opinion that the salt is not, 
strictly speaking, an antidote, but that it may prove of service in’ 
neutralizing the venom while in the tissues, but is of no service 
if the poison has been absorbed into the general circulation. In 
Ins over one hundred experiments he used solution of cobra poison 
and permanganate solution varying in strength, and from his 
well-known careful method of working, great reliance may be 
placed in his statements. His remarks in summing up will be 
given further on. 
Theodore Aron, one of Prof. Binz’s assistants at the Univer¬ 
sity of Bonn, also experimented in 1882 with the permanganate 
as an antidote to cobra poison, publishing his results in the Cen- 
tralblatt fur Klinische Medizin , Bonn, 1882, No. 31, Nov. 18, 
and states that he saved some animals by its uses, but he seems to 
attach much more value to the use of a solution of chloride of 
calcium, for out of twenty-two experiments with this salt he saved 
seventeen of the rabbits which had been inoculated with the 
venom. He also used alcohol, caffeine, atropine and bromine as 
antidotes, but all failed. 
In April, 1882, Dr. Couty, who had assisted Dr. de Lacerda 
with his experiments in Brazil, sent a communication to the 
Academy of Sciences of Paris, in which he stated that, after hav¬ 
ing made experiments himself, he was obliged to conclude that 
the permanganate had no antidotal effect upon serpent venom ; 
when in the circulation all of the animals inoculated died. De 
Lacerda, in answering the statement of his former colleague, men¬ 
tions that a rupture of friendly relations had taken place between 
himself and Dr. Couty, and explains why the latter had failed, 
when he himself had almost invariably succeeded. Space will 
not permit of this being repeated here. 
