THE UNEXPECTED RECOVERY OF A CASE OF SUNSTROKE. 
67 
istered two ounces of spirits of nitrous ether. At 12 o’clock 
P. M. he was rolling upon his chest and eating little hay, and at 
2 o’clock A. M. he came a number of times so near rising that I 
thought it safe to leave him in care of the driver and a friend of 
his, as he was gaining strength so rapidly I had no doubt of his 
being upon his feet before sunrise, and leaving some stimulant 
with the men, to be given during the night, I went home. At 
7 o’clock A. M. I was called again and was told that the patient 
was worse, and to come up right away. Upon reaching there 
I found that my expectations had not been verified and that he 
had not been able to rise, although he had nearly done so with 
assistance many times I found upon examination that the 
temperature was 102^ the pulse even, but weaker than before. 
He was able to roll upon his chest, but would fall again unless 
held up. I administered more stimulants, and as there was a 
large sewer being built near us I went over and procured eight 
men to help us try to lift him up ; there were then eleven of us 
there, and we used our combined efforts on him, but were unable 
to stand him up although he helped himself as much as possible. 
As the sun was getting hot we borrowed some boards from the 
sewer builders and built a shed over him, and poured buckets of 
water over him occasionally. At 10 o’clock, A. M. he was no 
longer able to roll upon his chest, and the pulse was weaker and 
faster than at 8 o’clock. I gave more stimulants, but they had 
no effect. At 1 o’clock I gave three ounces of aromatic spirits 
of ammonia and one drachm of the fluid extract of nux vomica 
in solution. This dose had no effect, and as at 2 o clock P. M. 
he could not throw his head more than a foot from the ground, 
I decided that I would destroy him, as I felt confident he would 
never recover. As I had no fire-arm with me I decided I would 
poison him, and examined my medicine case to see what would, 
in my opinion, do the work. I found that I had two agents that 
would be powerful enough, I thought. One was a full ounce of 
the tincture of aconite root, and the other the remaining seven 
drachms in an ounce bottle of fluid extract of nux vomica. 
(You will remember that one drachm of nux had been given 
