The relief its vapor affords in the collapse of chloroform anaesthesia, in which dissolution is imminent from paralyzed heart's action, is instantaneous, and its effect upon the spasmodic and suffocative sensations of hydrophobia are equally prompt. Moreover, without further discussing its physiological functions, it is the nearest approach to an antidote to certain zymotic poisons, and especially valuable in warding off and aborting the action of the ferment that gives rise to pertussis, or whooping cough. Iodide of ethyl is another therapeutical measure that is worthy of consideration; and iodoform in the treatment of the sequelae incident to recovery.

The native population of India, in spite of the contrary accepted opinion, are remarkably free from resort to nostrums that lay claim to being antidotes. The person inoculated by the cobra is at once seized by his friends, and constant and violent exercise enforced, if necessary at the point of stick, and severe and cruel (but nevertheless truly merciful) beatings are often a result. In this we see a direct application, without in the least understanding them, of the rules laid down to secure certain physiological results, as for the relief of opium and morphia narcosis, which serpent poisoning almost exactly resembles. The late Doctor Spillsbury (Physician-General of Calcutta),10 while stationed at Jubulpore, Central India, was informed late one evening that his favorite horse keeper had just been dangerously bitten by a cobra of unusual size, and therefore more than ordinarily venomous. He at once ordered his gig, and in spite of the wails and protestations of the sufferer and his friends, with whom a fatal result was already a foregone conclusion, the doctor caused his wrists to be bound firmly and inextricably to the back of the vehicle; then assuring the man if he did not keep up he would most certainly be dragged to death, he mounted to his seat and drove rapidly away.

Three hours later, or a little more, he returned, having covered nearly thirty miles without cessation or once drawing rein. The horse keeper was found bathed in profuse perspiration, and almost powerless from excessive fatigue. Eau de luce, an aromatic preparation of ammonia, was now administered at frequent and regular intervals as a diffusible stimulant, and moderate though constant exercise enforced until near dawn, when the sufferer was found to be completely recovered.

The value of violent and profuse cutaneous transpiration, thereby securing a rapidly eliminating channel for discharging poison from the system, is well known; in no other way can action be had so thorough, speedy, and prompt. Captain Maxwell11 tells us it was formerly the custom among the Irish peasantry of Connaught, when one manifested unmistakable evidences of hydrophobia, to procure the death of the unfortunate by smothering between two feather beds. In one instance, after undergoing this treatment, the supposed corpse was seen, to the horror and surprise of all who witnessed it, to crawl from between the bolsters, when he was found to be entirely free from his disorder; the beds, however, were saturated through and through with the perspiration that escaped the body in the intensity of his mortal agony. More recently a French physician,12 recognizing the incubatory stage of rabies in his own person, resolved upon suicide rather than undergo its attendant horrors. The hot bath was selected for the purpose, with a view of gradually increasing its temperature until syncope should be induced, which he hoped would be succeeded by death.

To his surprise, however, as the temperature of the water rose, his sensations of distress improved; and the very means chosen for terminating life became instead his salvation, restoring to perfect health. Again, Dr. Peter Hood13 relates that a blacksmith residing in the neighborhood of his country house was in high repute for miles about by reason of his cures of rabies. His remedy consisted simply in forcing the person bitten to accompany him in a rapid walk or trot for twenty miles or more, after which he administered copious draughts of a hot decoction of broom tops, as much for its moral effect as for its value in sustaining and prolonging established diaphoresis.

Though the pathological conditions of hydrophobia and serpent poisoning are by no means parallel, the rationale of the methods employed in opening the emunctories of the skin are the same; and were it not for its powerful protracting effect and depressing action upon the heart, we might perhaps secure valuable aid from jaborandi (pilocarpus). since it stimulates profusely all the secretions; as it is, more is to be hoped for in the former disorder than in the latter. It would be desirable also to know what influence the Turkish bath might exert, and it would seem worthy at least of trial.

[1]

Presumably the Natal ombozi, or spitting cobra, Naja haemachites, who is fully equal to the feat described.

[2]

On the authority of N.A. Taylor and H.F. McDaniels.

[3]

Serpentaria derives its name from its supposed antidotal properties, and guaco and Aristolochia India enjoyed widely heralded but rapidly fleeting popularity in the two Indias for a season. Tanjore pill (black pepper and arsenic) is still extensively lauded in districts whose serpents possess little vitality, but is every way inferior to iodine.

[4]

A Chinese remedy - as might be imagined.

[5]

Still extensively practiced, the first in Michigan, the latter in Missouri and Arkansas, and inasmuch as one is cooling and soothing, and the other slightly provocative of perspiration in the part, are not altogether devoid of plausibility.

[6]

Medical Independent, 1855.

[7]

Vide report to Prof. J. Henry Bennett.

[8]

London Times.

[9]

London Lancet.

[10]

London Lancet.

[11]

Wild Sports or the West.

[12]

L'Union Medicale - name withheld by request of the gentleman.

[13]

London Lancet.