86 
THE THANATOPHIDIA OF INDIA. 
effects of tlie bite was manifested. I think it may be fairly 
concluded, from these and other experiments, that the Cobra is 
not affected by the poison either of the Daboia or of its own 
species. 
An Account of the Employment of a Supposed Antidote in Cases of 
Snalce-bite, with Experiments on the same. Communicated by 
Colonel C. L. Showers. 
This account of experiments conducted at the Owalior Resi¬ 
dency, in the presence of Colonel C. D. Showers, Officiating 
Political Agent; and Dr. J. Macbeth, Superintending Staff 
Surgeon of Morar, was sent me by Colonel Showers with the 
following letter:— 
“ Dear Dr. Eayrer, — I have been much interested in reading 
from time to time the published accounts of your own and Dr, 
Shortt’s experiments on the action of snake-poison. 
“ There is a man here, a native, who possesses what he believes 
to be a specific antidote. I was led to institute experiments 
for its being tested by accidentally witnessing its efficacy in the 
case of a woman who had been bitten by a venomous snake. 
“ The following record of facts and experiments which, by the 
kind and skilful co-operation of Dr. Macbeth, Staff Superin¬ 
tending Surgeon of Morar, I am able to lay before you, will 
place you, and any other professional gentlemen whom you 
may think proper to associate with yourself in the inquiry, in 
a position to judge whether a specific antidote to snake-poison 
has been found. It is naturally an object of universal im¬ 
portance. The native has communicated his secret to me, and 
desires to proclaim it. But before doing so all I wish is that 
the antidote, after being subjected to every test that can he 
devised, and to which I am prepared to submit it, shall be 
admitted by competent professional authority to be really a 
specific antidote for snake-poison, in order that I may present 
it as a boon to the world. 
“ The case of the woman above referred to, as having brought 
the man and his antidote under my notice, occurred on the 1st 
August last, and may be described as follows :— 
“ A report being made to me that a woman, living in a village 
adjoining the Residency, had been bitten by a snake and was 
dying, I sent for the Residency Surgeon, and walked over 
myself at once, attended by a servant, with brandy, in the hope 
of being able to afford assistance. On arriving at the scene of 
the accident, I found the woman seated on the ground outside 
the door of her hut, under a sort of improvised porch formed 
of branches and leaves, which the villagers had erected at the 
moment, to afford the woman air without exposure to the sun. 
She was suffering from a succession of swooning fits, having 
already had eight previous to my arrival, in the interval of 
about two hours since she was bittep. The marks of the bite 
were distinctly visible on her ankle. 
“ While waiting for the surgeon, one of the swooning fits 
recurred. The method resorted to by two men who were 
treating her was what is known among natives by the term 
jharna phookna, or to exorcise. I had never witnessed it before. 
It was a strange and painful spectacle. As soon as indications 
of the approaching swoon appeared, and the woman fell forward 
from her sitting posture insensible, one of the two men seized 
her head across the forehead and temples with one hand, the 
other hand supporting her head behind, and then commenced 
shouting some muntros, or charmed verses, into her ear, at the 
very top of his voice ; the other man, seated on the opposite 
side, taking up the last note of each cadence and prolonging it 
with an indescribable howl, with his mouth close to her ear. 
After this had been continued for some minutes without any 
sign of returning consciousness, the man who was supporting 
the woman by the head commenced shaking her violently, and 
slapping her and rating her vociferously, in apparent anger at 
her obstinacy. After some time this had the desired effect, 
as slowly, with convulsive gasps and other symptoms of distress, 
she came to herself. 
“ In the interval a man had arrived on the scene, who at once 
assumed—and was tacitly admitted by the bystanders to do so— 
the treatment of the case. He quietly put aside the charmers, 
reassured the woman and her relatives with an air of perfect 
confidence as to the safety of her life, and pounding something 
on a stone, he administered it to her. We then left, directing 
that a report of the progress of the woman’s case should be 
made from time to time. In about two hours another swooning 
fit was reported—the previous ones having recurred at intervals 
of about a quarter of an hour. Subsequent reports announced 
her steady progress and complete recovery. That night she 
was kept forcibly awake by the instructions of the man who 
had administered the antidote as a precaution, on account of 
the long time she had been under the influence of the snake- 
poison before he was called in. 
“ This case led me to make inquiries about the person who 
had treated it so successfully, and I sent for him. On question¬ 
ing him as to the nature of his antidote, he was very reserved 
at first; hut on my offering to take him into my own service, 
he grew more communicative. He subsequently entered my 
service and revealed to me the secret of his antidote, giving me 
some of the material. So confident was he in its efficacy, 
that he offered to allow himself to be bitten by any snake; but 
this was a test that it hardly required the fatal example of 
Mr. Drummond’s case at Melbourne to place out of the 
question. 
“ To test the efficacy of the antidote, however, by experiments 
in coipore vili, I sought the co-operation of Dr. Macbeth, who, 
I was aware, took great interest in the subject; and hence the 
series of experiments which are recorded in the accompanying 
enclosure. 
“As the last terminated some weeks ago (September 12tli), I 
should not have delayed so long forwarding the account, but 
under the pressure of public business, entailed by the exigencies 
of this year’s drought, I have never found a leisure hour to 
transmit it to you. The delay, however, has proved of material 
advantage to the strengthening of the case in favour of the 
antidote in the saving of another human life. The case is 
this:—- 
“ On the 2nd instant, a resident of Old Owalior, a carpenter, 
came to the Residency, in much apparent distress, to say that 
his wife had been bitten by a snake, and had become insensible 
from the effects. Hearing, he added, that there was a person 
in my employ who could administer relief, he had come to 
seek it. I sent back my servant with him. He administered 
the antidote to the woman, which, as he reported on his return 
in the evening, had brought her round. 
“ The following morning I sent to inquire how the woman was, 
and desired that if quite recovered, her husband, the carpenter, 
and herself should appear at my office. They duly came the 
same day. The marks of the bite were distinctly visible on the 
woman’s finger, but she had quite recovered from the effects 
of the poison. I had the man’s deposition taken by my office 
moonshee, and append a translation of it, which will be found 
at the end of the record of experiments. 
“The importance of the subject may be gathered from the 
fact recorded in the last Oude Administration Report, that 
1127 persons died from snake-bites during the past year, and 
again, in the Central Provinces Administration Report, that 
1874 had died from the same cause during the three preceding 
years. These figures, referring to isolated districts of India, 
may afford some approximate idea of the mortality arising 
from this cause throughout India and all other serpent-infested 
countries of the East. 
