TIGER SNAKE. 19 
A recital of the outlines of a remarkable recovery from snake 
bite, which took place in Oct., 1891, will illustrate the process 
referred to above. An employee on the Gippsland railway, Vic- 
toria, was bitten on the hand by a snake, while he was engaged in 
oiling the ‘‘ plunger” of a pump, at one of the stations about 30 
miles from the metropolis. ‘The station-master put a couple of liga- 
tures on the sufferer’s arm—one at the wrist and the other above the 
elbow. ‘This man had been bitten by a snake at the same pump a 
few days before, the second bite being only half an inch from the 
first one. On the first occasion he scarified and sucked the wound, 
and though the two fang punctures were distinctly discernible, he 
felt nothing beyond a general drowsiness, from which he recovered 
in less thana week. Being in acute pain the man made for the 
Pakenham station as quickly as possible, and was sent to Berwick, 
where the local doctor injected strychnine, and then forwarded the 
patient to Dandenong. Having arrived there, two medical men 
resolyed to adopt the treatment recommended by Dr. Thwaites, of 
Tallangatta. They first injected one-thirtieth of a grain of strych- 
nine, and then kept the patient walking up and down the street, 
with the assistance of two strong men. The symptoms being still 
unfavourable, and the limbs of the sufferer becoming almost as loose 
as those of an automaton, another 30th of a grain of strychnine and 
20 minims sof ammonia were injected, and brandy administered. 
Immediately after this his pulse quickened and his condition 
appeared better, After an hour and a half the unfortunate man 
sank again, when the operation was again repeated ; it revived him 
for the third time, but in an hour he collapsed again. Ether having 
been injected without avail, as a final effort the galvanic battery 
was brought into use. The most extraordinary feature in the 
treatment was the astonishing tonic effect of galvanism in relation 
to the pulse: whenever there was a cessation of current, the patient 
relapsed to his former stupor, and the pulse failed. The battery 
was continued with a few intermissions for nine hours. It was 
applied to the nape of the neck, and at the apex of the heart. The 
apparently dead man was galvanised into life. 

Kiwi—Apteryx australis. 
Introduction. —The first account of this bird was published in 
England by Dr. Shaw, in the Naturalists’ Miscellany. A specimen 
had been presented to him by Captain Barclay, of the ship Providence, 
about 1812. This afterwards passed into the possession of the Earl 
of Derby, then Lord Stanley. His lordship’s being a private col- 
lection, and there being no other specimen in England or on the 
continent, the existence of the species was doubted for upwards of 
twenty years. Its history remained doubtful till June, 1833, when 
Mr Yarrell published in the ‘‘ Transations of the Zoological Society ” 
a paper which fully established this bird among accredited species, 
Mr. Gould afterwards became acquainted with five additional 
specimens: two of these being presented to the Zoological Society 
