SNAKE BITE AND ITS ANTIDOTE. 
323 
elapse no antidotal effects can be produced. He also states that 
it would be wrong to rely upon this drug in cases of bites of 
other venomous reptiles in which the bites are often, or more 
rapidly, mortal. 
JDr. G. Badaloni reports in the Lancet , London , 1883, I., 768, 
that from his experiments with the permanganate he is led to be¬ 
lieve it is of no avail in cases of poisoning from viper bite. Mr. 
Vincent Richards, of Calcutta, who used permanganate in a great 
number of experiments regarding its antidotal power over the 
cobra venom, has reached the following conclusion: 
I. “ That in dogs no appreciable symptoms of cobra poison" 
ing followed by the hypodermic or intravenous injection of a 
watery solution of from two to seven centigrammes of cobra 
poison, when previously mixed with from one to three deci¬ 
grammes of permanganate of potash, though, under ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances, such quantities hypodermically injected are more 
than sufficient to produce fatal results.” This statement simply 
proves that the salt renders the poison inert when mixed together 
in a vessel, not in the body of an animal, and our own experi¬ 
ments show a similar condition. 
II. “ That when similar quantities of a watery solution of 
cobra poison were hypodermically injected into dogs and were 
followed either immediately or after an interval of four minutes 
(the longest interval I have yet sufficiently tested), by the hypo¬ 
dermic injection with the same part of a watery solution of per¬ 
manganate of potash (one to six decigrammes) no appreciable 
symptom of cobra poisoning resulted.” This experience of Mr. 
Richards differs entirely in its result from ours, as is shown by 
the notes given above. 
III. “ That when glycerine was used instead of water, to dis¬ 
solve the dried cobra poison, the permanganate of potash ap¬ 
peared to have no power over the virulence of the virus.” This 
statement, it is thought, has been disproved by our own experi¬ 
ments already related. 
IV. “ That after the development of symptoms of cobra pois¬ 
oning the injection of permanganate of potash, whether hypo¬ 
dermic or intravenous, or both, failed to exercise any influence 
upon the symptoms.” 
