By Dr. G. ARCHIE STOCKWELL.
Chemistry has made astounding strides since the days of the sixteenth
century, when Italian malice and intrigue swayed all Europe, and
poisons and poisoners stalked forth unblushingly from cottage and
palace; when crowned and mitered heads, prelates, noblemen, beneficed
clergymen, courtiers, and burghers became Borgias and De Medicis in
hideous infamy in their greed for power and affluence; and when the
civilized world feared to retire to rest, partake of the daily repast,
inhale the odors of flower or perfume, light a wax taper, or even
approach the waters of the holy font. These horrors have been laid
bare, their cause and effect explained, and tests discovered whereby
they may be detected, providing the law with a shield that protects
even the humblest individual. Great as the science is, however, it is
yet far removed from perfection; and there are substances so
mysterious, subtle, and dangerous as to set the most delicate tests
and powerful lenses at naught, while carrying death most horrible in
their train; and chief of these are the products of Nature's
laboratory, that provides some sixty species of serpents with their
deadly venom, enabling them in spite of sluggish forms and retiring
habits to secure abundant prey and resent mischievous molestation. The
hideous _trigonocephalus_ has forced the introduction and acclimation
of the mongoose to the cane fields of the Western tropics; the tiger
snake (_Heplocephalus curtus_) is the terror of Australian plains; the
fer de lance (_Craspedocephalus lanceolatus_) renders the paradise of
Martinique almost uninhabitable; the tic paloonga (_Daboii russelli_)
is the scourge of Cinghalese coffee estates; the giant ehlouhlo of
Natal (unclassified) by its presence secures a forbidding waste for
miles about; the far famed cobra de capello (_Naja tripudians_)
ravages British India in a death ratio of one-seventh of one per cent.
of the dense population, annually, and is the more dangerous in that
an assumed sacred character secures it largely from molestation and
retributive justice; and in Europe and America we have vipers,
rattlesnakes, copperheads, and moccasins (_viperinæ_ and _crotalidæ_),
that if a less degree fatal, are still a source of dread and
annoyance. All these forms exhibit in general like ways and like
habits, and if the venom of all be not generically identical, the
physiological and toxicological phenomena arising therefrom render
them practically and specifically so. Indeed, their attributes appear
to be mere modifications arising from difference in age, size,
development, climate, latitude, seasons, and enforced habits, aided
perhaps by idiosyncrasies and the incidents and accidents of life.
In delicacy of organism and perfection in mechanism and precision, the
inoculatory apparatus of the venomous reptile excels the most
exquisite appliances devised by the surgical implement maker's art,
and it is doubtful whether it can ever be rivaled by the hand of man.
The mouth of the serpent is an object for the closest study,
presenting as it does a series of independent actions, whereby the
bones composing the upper jaw and palate are loosely articulated, or
rather attached, to one another by elastic and expansive ligaments,
whereby the aperture is made conformatory, or enlarged at will--any
one part being untrammeled and unimpeded in its action by its fellows.
The recurved, hook-like teeth are thus isolated in application, and
each venom fang independent of its rival when so desired, and it
becomes possible to reach points and recesses seemingly inaccessible.
The fangs proper, those formidable weapons whose threatening presence
quails the boldest opponent, inspires the fear of man, and puts to
flight the entire animal kingdom--lions, tigers, and leopards, all but
the restless and plucky mongoose--and whose slightest scratch is
attended with such dire results, are two in number, one in each upper
jaw, and placed anteriorly to all other teeth, which they exceed by
five or six times in point of size. Situated just within the lips,
recurved, slender, and exceeding in keenness even the finest of
cambric needles, they are penetrated in their longitudinal diameter by
a delicate, hair-like canal opening into a groove at the apex,
terminating on the anterior surface in an elongated fissure. As the
canal is straight, and the tooth falciform, a like groove or
longitudinal fissure is formed at the base, where it is inclosed by
the aperture of the duct that communicates with the poison apparatus.
At the base of each fang, and extending from a point just beneath the
nostril, backward two-thirds the distance to the commissure of the
mouth, is the poison gland, analogous to the salivary glands of man,
that secretes a pure, mucous saliva, and also a pale straw-colored,
half-oleaginous fluid, the venom proper. Within the gland, venom and
saliva are mingled in varying proportions coincidently with
circumstances; but the former slowly distills away and finds lodgment
in the central portion of the excretory duct, that along its middle is
dilated to form a bulb-like receptacle, and where only it may be
obtained in perfect purity.
When the reptile is passive, the fangs are arranged to lie backward
along the jaw, concealed by the membrane of the mouth, and thus offer
no impediment to deglutition. Close inspection, however, at once
reveals not only their presence, but also several rudimentary ones to
supply their place in case of injury or accident. The bulb of the
duct, too, is surrounded by a double aponeurotic capsule, of which the
outermost and strongest layer is in connection with a muscle by whose
action both duct and gland are compressed at will, conveying the
secretion into the basal aperture of the fang, at the same time
refilling the bulb.
When enraged and assuming the offensive and defensive, the reptile
draws the posterior portion of its body into a coil or spiral, whereby
the act of straightening, in which it hurls itself forward to nearly
its full length, lends force to the blow, and at the same instant the
fangs are erected, drawn forward in a reverse plane, permitting the
points to look outward beyond the lips. The action of the compressor
muscles is contemporaneous with the blow inflicted, the venom being
injected with considerable violence through the apical outlets of the
fangs, and into the bottom of the wound. If the object is not
attained, the venom may be thrown to considerable distances, falling
in drops; and Sir Arthur Cunynghame in a recent work on South Africa
relates that he was cautioned not to approach a huge cobra of six feet
or more in length in its death agony, lest it should hurl venom in his
eyes and create blindness; he afterward found that an officer of Her
Majesty's XV. Regiment had been thus injured at a distance of
_forty-five feet_, and did not recover his eyesight for more than a
week.[1]
[Footnote 1: Presumably the Natal ombozi, or spitting cobra, _Naja
hæmachites_, who is fully equal to the feat described.]
With the infliction of the stroke and expression of its venom, the
creature usually attempts to reverse its fangs in the wound, thereby
dragging through and lacerating the flesh; an ingenious bit of
devilishness hardly to be expected from so low a form of organism; but
its frequent neglect proves it by no means mechanical, and it
frequently occurs that the animal bitten drags the reptile after it a
short distance, or causes it to leave its fangs in the wound. Some
serpents also, as the fer de lance, black mamba, and water moccasin,
are apparently actuated by most vindictive motives, and coil
themselves about the part bitten, clinging with leech-like tenacity
and resisting all attempts at removal. Two gentlemen of San Antonio,
Texas,[2] who were bitten by rattlesnakes, subsequently asserted that
after having inflicted all possible injury, the reptiles scampered
away with unmistakable manifestations of pleasure. "Snakes," remarked
one of the victims, "usually glide smoothly away with the entire body
prone to the ground; but the fellow I encountered traveled off with an
up and down wave-like motion, as if thrilled with delight, and then,
getting under a large rock where he was safe from pursuit, he turned,
and raising his head aloft waved it to and fro, as if saying. 'Don't
you feel good now?' It would require but a brief stretch of the
imagination to constitute that serpent a veritable descendant of the
old Devil himself."
[Footnote 2: On the authority of N.A. Taylor and H.F. McDaniels.]
As the first blow commonly exhausts the receptacle of the duct, a
second (the venom being more or less mingled and diluted by the
salivary secretion) is comparatively less fatal in results; and each
successive repetition correspondingly inoffensive until finally
nothing but pure mucus is ejected. Nevertheless, when thoroughly
aroused, the reptile is enabled to constantly hurl a secretion, since
both rage and hunger swell the glands to enormous size, and stimulate
to extraordinary activity--a fortuitous circumstance to which many an
unfortunate is doubtless indebted for his life. The removal of a fang,
however, affects its gland to a degree that it becomes almost
inoperative, until such a time as a new tooth is grown, and again
calls it into action, which is commonly but a few weeks at most; and a
person purchasing a poisonous serpent under the supposition that it
has been rendered innocuous, will do well to keep watch of its mouth
lest he be some time taken unaware. It may be rendered permanently
harmless, however, by first removing the fang, and then cauterizing
the duct by means of a needle or wire, heated to redness; when for
experimental purposes the gland may be stimulated, and the virus drawn
off by means of a fine-pointed syringe.
In what the venom consists more than has already been described, we
are not permitted to know. It dries under exposure to air in small
scales, is soluble in water but not in alcohol, slightly reddens
litmus paper, and long retains its noxious properties. It has no acrid
or burning taste, and but little if any odor; the tongue pronounces it
inoffensive, and the mucous surface of the alimentary track is proof
against it, and it has been swallowed in considerable quantities
without deleterious result--all the poison that could be extracted
from a half dozen of the largest and most virile reptiles was
powerless in any way to affect an unfledged bird when poured into its
open beak. Chemistry is not only powerless to solve the enigma of its
action, and the microscope to detect its presence, but pathology is at
fault to explain the reason of its deadly effect; and all that we know
is that when introduced even in most minute quantities into an open
wound, the blood is dissolved, so to speak, and the stream of life
paralyzed with an almost incredible rapidity. Without test or
antidote, terror has led to blind, fanatical empiricism, necessarily
attended with no little injury in the search for specifics, and it may
be reasonably asserted that no substance can be named so inert and
worthless as not to have been recommended, or so disgusting as not to
have been employed; nor is any practice too absurd to find favor and
adherents even among the most enlightened of the medical profession,
who have rung all the changes of the therapeutical gamut from
serpentaria[3] and boneset to guaco, cimicifugia, and _Aristolochia
India_ to curare, alum, chalk, and mercury to arsenic; and in the way
of surgical dressings and appliances everything from poultices of
human fæces,[4] burying the part bitten in fresh earth,[5] or
thrusting the member or entire person into the entrails of living
animals, to cupping, ligatures, escharotics, and the moxa.
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 4: A Chinese remedy--as might be imagined.]
[Footnote 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.]
Although the wounds of venomous serpents are frequently attended with
fatal results, such are not necessarily invariable. There are times
and seasons when all reptiles are sluggish and inactive, and when they
inflict comparatively trifling injuries; and the poison is much less
virulent at certain periods than others--during chilling weather for
instance, or when exhausted by repeated bites in securing sustenance.
Young and small serpents, too, are less virile than large and more
aged specimens, and it has likewise been observed that death is more
apt to follow when the poison is received at the beginning or during
the continuance of the heated term.
The action of the venom is commonly so swift that its effects are
manifested almost immediately after inoculation, being at once
conveyed by the circulatory system to the great nervous centers of the
body, resulting in rapid paralysis of such organs as are supplied with
motive power from these sources; its physiological and toxicological
realizations being more or less speedy accordingly as it is applied
near or remote from these centers, or infused into the capillary or
the venous circulation. Usually, too, an unfortunate experiences,
perhaps instantaneously, an intense burning pain in the member
lacerated, which is succeeded by vertigo, nausea, retching, fainting,
coldness, and collapse; the part bitten swells, becomes discolored, or
spotted over its surface with livid blotches, that may, ultimately,
extend to the greater portion of the body, while the poison appears to
effect a greater or less disorganization of the blood, not by
coagulating its fibrine as Fontana surmised, but in dissolving,
attenuating, and altering the form of its corpuscles, whose integrity
is so essential to life, causing them to adhere to one another, and to
the walls of the vessels by which they are conveyed; being no longer
able to traverse the capillaries, oedema is produced, followed by the
peculiar livid blush. Shakespeare would appear to have had intuitive
perception of the nature of such subtle poison, when he caused the
ghost to describe to Hamlet
"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 hæmorrhages 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 hæmastatics. 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 sequelæ, aside from death produced through primary and secondary
effects, paralysis, loss of nerve power, impotence, hæmorrhage, 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."
It is an indisputable fact, however, that there are individuals whose
natural or acquired idiosyncrasies permit them to be inoculated by the
most venomous of reptiles without deleterious or unpleasant results,
and Colonel Matthews Taylor[7] knew several persons of this character
in India, and who regarded the bite of the cobra or tic paloonga with
nearly as much indifference as the sting of a gnat or mosquito. Again,
in 1868, Mr. Drummond, a prominent magistrate of Melbourne,
Australia,[8] met with untimely death under circumstances that
attracted no little attention. An itinerant vender of nostrums had on
exhibition a number of venomous reptiles, by which he caused himself
to be successively bitten, professing to secure immunity by reason of
a secret compound which he offered for sale at a round figure.
Convinced that the fellow was an imposter, and his wares valuable only
as a means of depleting the pockets of the credulous, Mr. Drummond
loudly asserted the inefficacy of the nostrum, as well as the
innocuousness of the reptiles, which he assumed to be either naturally
harmless, or rendered so by being deprived of their fangs; and in
proof thereof insisted upon being himself bitten. To this experiment
the charlatan was extremely averse, offering strenuous objections, and
finally conveyed a point blank refusal. But Mr. Drummond's demands
becoming more imperative, and observing that his hesitancy impressed
the audience as a tacit acknowledgment of the allegations, he finally
consented, and placed in the hands of the magistrate a tiger snake,
which he deemed least dangerous, and which instantly struck the
gentleman in the wrist. The usual symptoms of serpent poisoning
rapidly manifested themselves, followed by swelling and lividity of
the part, obstructed circulation and respiration, and coma; and in
spite of the use of the vaunted remedy and the attentions of
physicians the result was most fatal. The vender subsequently conceded
the worthless character of his nostrum, declaring that be enjoyed
exemption from the effects of of serpent poison by virtue of recovery
from a severe inoculation in early life; and he further added he knew
"some people who were born so," who put him "up to this dodge" as a
means of gaining a livelihood.
[Footnote 7: _Vide_ report to Prof. J. Henry Bennett.]
[Footnote 8: London _Times_.]
It is a general supposition that such immunity, when congenital, is
acquired _in utero_ by the inoculation of the parent, and Oliver
Wendell Holmes' fascinating tale of "Elsie Venner" embodies many
interesting features in this connection. Admitting such inoculation
may secure immunity, recent experiments in the action of this as well
as kindred poisons give no grounds for believing it at all universal
or even common, but as depending upon occult physiological or
accidental phenomena. For instance, the writer and his father are
equally proof against the contagion and inoculation of vaccination and
variola, in spite of repeated attempts to secure both, while their
respective mothers suffered terribly with smallpox at periods
subsequent to the birth of their children; and it is well understood
that there are striking analogies between the poisons of certain
contagious fevers and those of venomous serpents, inasmuch as one
attack conveys exemption from future ones of like character. In other
words, many animal poisons, as well as the pathological ones of
smallpox, measles, scarlatina, whooping cough, etc., have the power of
so modifying the animal economy, when it does not succumb to their
primary influence, as to ever after render it all but proof against
them. Witness, for instance, the ravages of the mosquito, that in
certain districts punishes most terribly all new comers, and who after
a brief residence suffer little, the bite no longer producing pain or
swelling.
Regarding the supposed correlation of serpent poison and the septic
ferments of certain tropical and infectious fevers, they are not
necessarily always contagious. It may be interesting to note that one
Doctor Humboldt in 1852,[9] in an essay read before the Royal Academy
of Medical Sciences at Havana, assumed their proximate identity, and
advocated the inoculation of the poison of one as a prophylactic of
the other. He claimed to have personally inoculated numberless persons
in New Orleans, Vera Cruz, and Cuba with exceedingly dilute venom,
thereby securing them perfect immunity from yellow fever. Aside from
the extraordinary nature of the statement, the fact that the doctor
affirmed, he had never used the virus to an extent sufficient to
produce any of its toxic symptoms, cast discredit over the whole, and
proofs were demanded and promised. This was the last of the subject,
however, which soon passed into oblivion, though whether from failure
on the part of the medico to substantiate his assertions, or from the
inanition of his colleagues, it is difficult to determine, though the
presumption is largely in favor of the former. Nevertheless, it is
worthy of consideration and exhaustive experimentation, since it is no
less plausible than the theory which rendered the name of Jenner
famous.
[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 anæsthesia, 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 sequelæ 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.
[Footnote 11: Wild Sports or the West.]
[Footnote 12: _L'Union Medicale_--name withheld by request of the
gentleman.]
[Footnote 13: London _Lancet_.]
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.
* * * * *