|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 21
"The leprous distillment whose effect
Bears such an enmity to the blood of man
That swift as quicksilver, it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body
And with sudden vigor it doth posset
And curd like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine
And a most instant tetter marked about
Most lazar like, with vile and loathsome crust
All my smooth body."
It is not to be supposed, however, that all or even a major portion of
the blood disks require to be changed or destroyed to produce a fatal
result, since death may supervene long before such a consummation can
be realized. It is the capillary circulation that suffers chiefly,
since the very size and caliber of the heart cavities and trunk
vessels afford them comparative immunity. But of the greatly dissolved
and disorganized condition of the blood that may occur secondarily, we
have evidences in the passive h�morrhages that attack those that have
recovered from the immediate effects of serpent poisoning, following
or coincident with subsidence of swelling and induration; and, as with
scurvy, bleeding may occur from the mouth, throat, lungs, nose, and
bowels, or from ulcerated surfaces and superficial wounds, or all
together, defying all styptics and h�mastatics. In a case occurring
under the care of Dr. David Brainerd in the Illinois General
Hospital,[6] blood flowed from the gums in great profusion, and on
examination was found destitute, even under the microscope, of the
faintest indications of fibrine--the principle upon which coagulation
depends. The breath, moreover, gave most sickening exhalations,
indicative of decomposition, producing serious illness in those
exposed for any length of time to its influence. We may add, among
other sequel�, aside from death produced through primary and secondary
effects, paralysis, loss of nerve power, impotence, h�morrhage, even
mortification or gangrene.
[Footnote 6: _Medical Independent_, 1855.]
The failure in myotic power of the heart and in the muscles of
respiration through reflex influence of par vagum and great
sympathetic nerves, whereby pulmonary circulation is impeded, are
among the earliest of phenomena. Breathing becoming retarded and
laborious, the necessary supply of oxygen is no longer received, and
blood still venous, in that it is not relieved of its carbon, is
returned through the arteries, whereby the capillaries of the brain
are gorged with a doubly poisoned circulation, poisoned by both venom
and carbon. In this we have ample cause for the attending train of
symptoms that, beginning with drowsiness, rapidly passes into stupor
followed by profound coma and ultimate dissolution--marked evidence of
the fact that a chemical agent or poison may produce a mechanical
disease; and autopsical research reveals absolutely nothing save the
general disorganization of blood corpuscles, as already noted.
Taking circumstantial and pathological evidences into consideration,
the hope of the person thus poisoned rests solely upon lack of
vitality in the serpent and its venom, and in his personal
idiosyncrasies, habits of life, condition of health, etc., and the
varied chapters of accidents. _To look for a specific, in any sense of
the word, is the utmost folly!_ The action of the poison and its train
of results follow inoculation in too swift succession to be overtaken
and counteracted by any antidote, supposing such to be a possible
product, even if administered hypodermically. We have evidence of this
in iodic preparations, iodine being the nearest approach to a perfect
antidote that can be secured by mortal skill, inasmuch, if quickly
injected into the circulation, it retards and restrains the
disorganizing process whereby the continuity of the blood corpuscles
is lost; moreover, it is a marked antiseptic, favors the production of
adhesive inflammation, whereby lymph is effused and coagulated about
the bitten part, and absorption checked, and the poison rendered less
diffusible. But when a remedy is demanded that shall restore the
pristine form, functions, and energy of the disorganized globules, man
arrogates to himself supernal attributes whereby it becomes possible
not only to save and renew, _but to create life_; and we can scarce
expect science or even accident (as some expect) to even rival Nature
and set at defiance her most secret and subtle laws. Such, however, is
the natural outcropping of an ignorant teaching and vulgar prejudice
that feeds and clothes the charlatan and ascribes to savage and
uncultured races an occult familiarity with pathological,
physiological, and remedial effect unattainable by the most advanced
sciences; and whereby the Negro, Malay, Hindoo, South Sea Islander,
and red man are granted an innate knowledge of poisons and their
antidotes more than miraculous. A reward of more than a quarter of a
century's standing, and amounting to several thousand pounds, is
offered by the East India Government for the discovery of a specific
for the bite of the cobra, and for which no claims have ever been
advanced; and the "snake charmers" or jugglers in whom this superior
knowledge is supposed to center are so well aware of the futility of
specifics, and the risk to which they are subjected, that few venture
to ply their calling without a broad-bladed, keen-edged knife
concealed about the person as a means of instant amputation in case of
accident. Medical and scientific associations of various classes, in
Europe, Australia, America, even Africa, and the East and West Indies,
have repeatedly held out the most tempting lures, and indulged in
exhaustive and costly experimentation in search of specifics for the
wounds of vipers, cobras, rattlesnakes, and the general horde of
venomous reptiles; and all in vain. Even the saliva of man, as well as
certain other secretions, is at times so modified by anger as to rival
the venom of the serpent in fatality, and it has no specific; and a
careful analysis of the pathological relations of such poison proves
that further experimentation and expectation is as irrational as the
pursuit of the "philosopher's stone."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|