APPENDIX. 
171 
the pressure of other engagements has prevented me from performing 
a sufficient number of experiments for this purpose. 
(The first four of Dr. T. Lauder Brunton’s series of experiments 
have already been recorded in the body of this work (pp. 149, 150 ; 
Experiments Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5), in the extract from a paper by Dr. 
Brunton and Dr. Fayrer, published in the Proceedings of the Royal 
Society, No. 145, 1873.) 
Experiment No. 5. 
Dissolved five milligrammes of dried alcoholic extract of Cobra 
poison in one cubic centimetre of water, and injected it under the skin 
of the left thigh of a Guinea-pig weighing about 790 grammes. The 
animal remained quite quiet for four minutes after the injection, and 
then was restless for a little while, but soon became quiet again. Nine 
minutes after the injection the watch-glass in which the poison had been 
placed was washed out with one cubic centimetre of water, and this 
was injected under the skin of the right thigh. Twenty-one minutes 
after the first injection the animal, which had been sitting quiet, gave 
a start. 24'.—Again a start ; makes a chewing motion. 29'.—Jerks 
its head up, and then lays it down on the table. When laid on its 
side it struggles to get up, but cannot do so. Jerking motion 
continues. The mouth is first jerked open, and then the head and 
body twitch. 33'.—Cornea insensible. 34'.—Movements of mouth 
still to be observed. The body opened. The heart was beating. 
There was extravasation of blood under the skin of the left hip, but 
none under that of the right. Hind and fore feet twitch when the 
sciatic or brachial nerves are irritated by an induced current. 
These experiments were made in the laboratory of Professor 
Burdon Sanderson, who allowed me the use of it with his usual kind¬ 
ness. 
No. IX. 
FONTANA ON THE INTRA-VENOUS INJECTION OF 
AMMONIA IN SNAKE-BITE. 
The following letter addressed to Mr. Gibelin, Aix-en-Provence, 
occurs in the “ Opusculi Scientific^'’ of Felice Fontana, p. 125 :— 
10th July, 1782. 
It is very true that several cases of cure of viper bites by the injec¬ 
tion of spirits of hartshorn into the veins have been reported in our 
Italian papers, and it is also true that these cures appear surprising 
and almost miraculous from the manner in which they are presented 
to us ; it appears, moreover, that certain persons take much quiet 
pleasure in assuring the public that the true specific against these 
poisons has at last been found—that which I have in vain sought for 
many years, whilst with philosophical candour I had declared the 
inutility of my long researches on the subject. Truly I must 
confess that I did not think of seeking a remedy in “ medicina 
infusoria ," for reasons that I could not present, but which you can 
easily imagine for yourself, nor did it concern me to consider the 
case mentioned by Vallisneri, being a solitary one. 
It is certainly the case that the vaunted cures are too few to form 
even a probable proof that the remedy is a specific, and that those 
cures are due to it and not to the strength of the individual and to 
the non-deadly nature of the viper poison. Perhaps 100 cases 
would hardly be sufficient to make it certain that spirits of hartshorn 
is this specific against the venom of the viper; if it were, the bitten 
animals into whose veins it is injected should be preserved from 
death, and the more easily so, the larger the dose and the sooner after 
the bite it is injected. 
I have employed in my experiments lambs and large rabbits. 
The lambs have been bitten twice and even three times, the rabbits 
only twice. The bites have been inflicted in the thigh, and the 
spirits of ammonia (hartshorn) has been introduced into the blood in the 
jugular vein immediately after the bite—so rapidly that in some 
animals only a few moments intervened. 
The quantities used were 20 to 40 drops—doses that could be 
borne by the animals without fatal effects, as I had ascertained by 
experiment in animals not bitten; a larger dose would have done 
harm, and might have killed the animals. Three lambs were bitten 
in the thigh, and all died in less than two hours—one after a few 
moments. Two rabbits out of nine that were bitten survived ten 
hours, all the others died in less than one hour. I am aware that 
a dozen experiments are insufficient to prove the absolute inutility of 
the spirits of hartshorn against the bite of the Viper, but they are 
sufficient to show that we should not place confidence in the few 
favourable cases cited by the supporters of this remedy. So long as 
medical men are not experimenters, the art of healing will not make 
great progress, and it is to this and nothing else that it is to be 
attributed that medicine has remained stationary from the time of 
Hippocrates until the present, whilst all other sciences have been 
progressing with gigantic paces. 
The physician considers that medicine to be the remedy for a 
disease, after the use of which recovery lias followed \ when really, iu 
sound logic, no other deduction should be made than that' the 
vaunted remedy has not killed the patient. We observe that the 
physician quickly believes, under the influence of this sort of 
reasoning, that the sick person would certainly have died had he not 
treated him; and with this he supposes either that of which he knows 
nothing, or which is doubtful, if not altogether false. It is not enough 
that the sick person recovers, but he must also assure himself that he 
would have died without the remedy. 
No. X. 
TWO CASES OF SNAKE-BITE TREATED BY INJECTION 
OF LIQUOR AMMONLE INTO THE VEINS, WITH 
REMARKS ON THE ACTION OF SNAKE-POISON. 
By A. FI. FIilson, M.D., Officiating Civil Surgeon, Moradabad. 
Case I.—On the night of the 19th June last year, at about half past 
12 o'clock, Dahee, a Hindoo Punkah Cooly, aged 40 years, while 
sleeping in the verandah of my house, was bitten in the shoulder by 
a snake. The night being hot and close, he was lying without any 
covering on the upper part of his body so that nothing intervened 
between his skin and the fangs of the reptile, and as there was bright 
moonlight at the time, he was able to see his assailant, which he 
described as being more than a yard long and black. The noise 
and confusion that followed awoke me, but unfortunately about five 
minutes elapsed before I could get a candle lighted so as to enable 
me to render him assistance. On inspecting the wound, there were found 
over the prominence of the right deltoid muscle, and about three 
quarters of an inch apart, two large drops of a clear serous-like fluid 
tinged with blood, which had apparently oozed from two small 
punctures, so minute that they could not be perceived with the naked 
eye. A burning pain was complained of in the neighbourhood of the 
bite which rapidly increased in intensity, and extended so as to affect 
a circular portion of the integument of the size of an ordinary saucer, 
and judging from the description given of it by the patient, I con¬ 
cluded it was very similar in character to that produced by the sting 
of a Scorpion. Having learned from the report of Dr. Fayrer's 
experiments that local treatment in such cases unless instantaneously 
resorted to is of no avail, I determined to give Professor Halford's 
remedy a trial. The hypodermic syringe necessary for this purpose I 
had with me, but unfortunately there was no ammonia in my house, and 
some had to be obtained from the jail hospital about a quarter of a mile 
distant. While waiting for the ammonia I had the patient walked up 
and down and small quantities of brandy and water administered to 
him. At 12.45, or about a quarter of an hour after being bitten, he 
complained of the pain in the shoulder shooting towards his throat 
and chest, and said he was beginning to feel intoxicated, but there 
was nothing iu his appearance at this time to indicate -that he was 
in any way under the influence of the poison. On the contrary, lie 
was quite calm and collected, and answered all questions in¬ 
telligently, while at the same time he was fully alive to the danger 
of his condition. “A person bitten by a black snake never recovers," 
he replied to one of his friends, who suggested, by way of 
consoling him, that the snake might possibly have been a non- 
poisonous one. His pupils were not dilated, and contracted when 
exposed to the light of a candle; the pulse was normal, and there was 
no embarrassment of the respiration. About five minutes afterwards 
he began to lose control over the muscles of his legs and staggered 
when left unsupported. At about 1 o'clock the paralysis of the legs 
having increased, the lower jaw began to fall and frothy and viscid 
saliva to ooze from the mouth; he also spoke indistinctly, like a man 
under the influence of liquor. At 1.10 a.m. he began to moan and 
shake his head frequently from side to side. The pulse was now some¬ 
what accelerated, but was beating regularly. The respirations also 
were increased in frequency. He was unable to answer questions, but 
appeared to be quite conscious. His arms did not seem to be para¬ 
lysed. At 1.15, the liquor ammonite having been brought to me 
(strength of the British Pharmacopoeia), twenty-five minims of it were 
rapidly injected under the skin of the forearm, but as this produced 
no result, the left basilic vein was laid bare and twenty-five minims 
injected into it. Having no skilled assistant with me, I had not time 
to observe what effect the operation had on the circulation, but it 
certainly caused no amelioration of the symptoms, and it was evident 
that the condition of the patient was fast becoming critical. He 
continued to moan and to shake his head from side to side as if trying 
to get rid of viscid mucus in the throat. The respirations were 
laboured but not stertorous. The external jugular vein of the left 
side was next exposed, and twenty-five minims of the liquor ammonite 
injected into it, but without producing any good effect. The breathing 
gradually became slower and slower and finally ceased at 1.44 a.m., 
while the heart continued to beat for about one minute longer. No 
convulsions preceded dissolution, which took place in one hour and 
five minutes after the infliction of the bite. 
