OASES OF SNAKE-BITE. 
57 
post-mortem, and removed the patient just before deatli from 
the dispensary. 
The following case is recorded bj r the Civil Surgeon of 
Baraitch, in Oude :— 
Doobui Abeer, Hindoo shepherd, aged twenty-five, was 
bitten at 6 a.m. on July 22nd, at a place named Pokhurpore, in 
Baraitch. He could not give the name of the snake, but 
descubed it as being of the colour of the white sugar-cane on 
the back, and white under the belly. He was bitten early in 
the morning, as he went to tend his sheep. A native’s de¬ 
scription is too vague to be relied on ; the white belly seems to 
point to the Krait as the most probable snake. There was 
general swelling and discoloration of the left leg, from the 
dorsum of the foot where he was bitten to the groin. He was 
quite conscious until the morning of the 24th, when stupor 
and drowsiness intervened. The bitten part was burned with 
a rupee made hot in his village; subsequently treated with 
brandy and ammonia, and the limb freely scarified, to relieve 
tension, together with the application of a roller and lead 
lotion. He died on the 24th, after an illness of fifty-six hours. 
No post-mortem was allowed. When the case was first seen 
by the Medical Officer, there was great swelling and tension of 
the limb from the foot to the knee, which continued to extend 
gradually until it reached the groin. There was perfect con¬ 
sciousness until within a few hours of death. 
The following case is recorded by the Civil Surgeon of 
Bijnour:— 
Chumar, a Hindoo labourer, aged thirty years, was bitten at 
4 a.m. on Aug. 19tli, in the village of Hookanpore, Bijnour. 
The snake was not seen. He is said to have been sleeping on a 
cot in his house. During the night he is supposed to have put 
his foot on the ground, and to have then been bitten. He 
complained of pain in the bitten part, followed quickly by in¬ 
sensibility and frothing at the mouth. No convulsions. Hiccup. 
He died at about 5.30 a.m. on Aug. 19th, or in about an hour 
and a half. The body was not brought in until too much 
decomposed for examination. The blood is reported to have 
been dark and fluid. No cadaveric rigidity noticed either by 
the friends or by the police who brought the body in to the 
station. The body when brought to the Sudder station was 
much decomposed, and all the information respecting the case 
was gathered from an ignorant relative of the deceased. “ I 
have no doubt,” says the Civil Surgeon, “that death resulted 
fiorn the bite of a snake. There was much congestion and 
but little swelling of the tissues in the neighbourhood of the 
bitten part, the dorsum of the right foot.” 
The following case is recorded by Dr. Cleghorn, Civil 
Assistant-Surgeon of Azimgurli :— 
Bhirnja Abeer, aged sixteen years, was said to have been 
bitten by a Cobra at 10 a.m. on April 0th, 1870, in the city of 
Azimguih. Circumstances under which he was bitten not 
noted. He is said to have been insensible when brought to the 
dispensary a few minutes after receiving the bite. Half a 
drachm of liquor ammonim was given immediately, and fifteen 
drops in a quarter of an hour. Dr. Cleghorn says—“The boy 
on being brought to the dispensary was apparently insensible ; 
half a drachm of liquor ammonise was poured into his mouth, 
after which he opened his eyes and appeared to be quite well. 
There were no symptoms of poisoning from the first, but there 
were the fresh marks of a snake-bite on the point of the right 
great toe. The snake was described and named by a Chow- 
kedar, who says he saw it. The snake must have been non- 
venomous, and the boy probably fainted from fright.” Dr. 
Cleghorn s explanation is no doubt the correct one, and is that of 
many other cases of so-called poison snake-bites and recoveries. 
The following cases are recorded by Dr. Cockburn, of 
Benares:— 
Dabee Dyal, Hindoo boy, aged nine years, was bitten on 
May 1st, 1870, at 8.30 f.m. The boy went out of his house 
at the above hour, and just outside it a snake is said to have 
wound itself round his leg, and bitten him on the inside of his 
foot, but neither the boy nor any one else saw the snake. This 
occurred in Benares. When brought to the Civil Surgeon’s 
house at 9 f.m., he was seen by the native doctor, who found 
him cold and pulseless, with froth on the lips. No very 
distinct mark of the puncture of a snake’s fangs: only a slight 
depression of the skin, with a slight sign of blood—more like 
an abrasion, in fact. The part was incised, and a ligature 
applied above. Liquor ammonias applied to the wound, and 
ten drops given m water. This was vomited, and soon after 
a second dose was given, the boy being with great difficulty 
got to swallow; in fact only a portion was taken. Fifteen or 
twenty minutes after the second dose, a third was given and 
soon vomited ; still no pulse, and viscid froth on the lips. The 
ten-drop doses of ammonia were continued at intervals of a 
quarter of an hour, and the boy was walked about, or rather 
dragged, for he could not be got to put his feet to the ground. 
“ 0n m J caching home at 10.30, the boy was still cold and 
pulseless. I at once injected ten drops of liquor ammonia;, with 
ten of water, with a hypodermic syringe, into the left upper 
arm, soon after which the pulse could be felt faintly beating, 
and the boy began to scream out loud at intervals. Then a 
quarter of an hour afterwards another dose of liquor ammonia; 
was given by the mouth, and the boy made to walk about. 
Half an hour after first hypodermic injection, a second was 
given in the other arm, soon after which the pulse markedly 
improved, and continued steadily to do so, and the boy became 
gradually sensible. After the second injection, only two doses 
more of liquor ammonise were given (at longer intervals), and 
the boy may be said to have recovered by one or two o’clock. 
At 4 a.m. the father took him home, and brought him again at 
5.30, when he was found quite well. This, of course, is a 
doubtful case, owing to the snake not having been seen, and 
the indefinite nature of the wound; while, on the other hand, 
the age of the boy rather goes against imagination being the 
cause of the symptoms. The boy looked younger than stated.” 
This is a very interesting case, as it is one in which the liquor 
ammonise was injected apparently with benefit. But, as Dr. 
Cockburn says, it is doubtful, as no one saw the snake, and the 
wound was not like the puncture of a snake fang. 
It is very possible that liquor ammonise injected hypoder¬ 
mically may act more powerfully and rapidly as a stimulant 
than when taken into the stomach, and, if so, it would be useful 
for that purpose. The experiments made on the lower animals 
show that, as an antidote to the bites of the Cobra, it has no 
power; but in the less deadly bites, where stimulants are useful, 
the hypodermic injection of liq. ammonise might be more bene¬ 
ficial and prompt m its action in rousing, than when it is given 
internally. It certainly should be tried, for in ten-drop doses 
diluted with water it is not likely to do any harm, even if it do 
no good. Sloughing of the areolar tissue has, I am told, fol¬ 
lowed in some cases ; but this, I think, must have been when 
the quantity has been larger, less diluted, and probably not 
properly diffused in the subcutaneous cellular tissue. 
