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Page 23
[Footnote 9: London _Lancet_.]
Outside of the transfusion of blood, for which there are strong
reasons for believing would be attended with happy results, the sole
remedies available in serpent poisoning are measures looking to the
prompt cutting off of the circulation of the affected part, and the
direct stimulation of the heart's action and the respiratory organs,
until such a time as Nature shall have eliminated all toxical
evidences; and these must necessarily be mechanical. Alcoholic
stimulants are available only as they act mechanically in sustaining
cardiac and pulmonary activity, and where their free use is prolonged
efficacy is quickly exhausted, and they tend rather to hasten a fatal
result. They are devoid of the slightest antidotal properties, and in
no way modify the activity of the venom; and an intoxicated person, so
far from enjoying the immunity with which he is popularly credited, is
far more apt to succumb to the virus than him of unfuddled intellect.
The reasons are obvious. Theoretically, for purely physiological and
therapeutic reasons _amyl nitrite_ should be of incalculable value,
though I have no knowledge of its use in this connection, since its
vapor when inhaled is a most powerful stimulator of cardiac action,
and when administered by the mouth it is unapproached in its control
of spasmodically contracted vessels and muscles. The relief its vapor
affords in the collapse of chloroform an�sthesia, 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 sequel� 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.
[Footnote 10: London _Lancet_.]
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 Maxwell[11] 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 Hood[13] 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.
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