Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-04-24

About twenty years ago the keeper Of
the reptiles at the London Geological
Gardens took the Indian Cobra from its
cage one day and twisted it round his
waist he then took hold of it near the
head with one hand, and with the other
lower down, he held it up in front OF
his face The brute drew back its head,
distended its hood, lashed out, and struck
the poor fellow on the side of the nose.
Within forty minutes after the accident
the patient was at the University Col
lege Hospital, and in the charge Of Mr..
Quain. He could not speak, had diff
Guilty of standing and was unable to
swallow. Artificial respiration was re-
sorted to for fifty minutes, and subse-
quently galyanism, but stupor rapidly
followed upon faintness, paralysis of the
extremities set in, and the patient died
in a comatose state, fifty-five minutes
after admission" So run Mr.. Quains
notes with all their terrible brevity. The
eminent surgeon simply records the case.
He neither suggests nor even hints. al q
possible cure. And although twenty
wears or more have passed since poor
Edward GurliDg's death, science still re-
mains as powerless TO do battle with
the deadly venom of the cobra as she
was in 1852 DR.. Fayrer, whose mag
nificent work on the 1hanatophidia OF
India is probably the finest geological
monograph which has yet been issued
from the press, says of the so-called an
tidotes:
80 name them all would be impossi-
BILE, but l may say that most reliance
has been placed on a few, such as am
monia, arsenic, iodine, bTomine, tie pol
son and bile of other snakes, the guaco
plant, aristolochia, senega, and, indeed,
on nearly every drug in or out OF the
pharmacePeia, TO say nothing of many
other things that have been IN vogue
among the ignorant, vulgar, or super
stitious, and that have nothing whatever
but credulity TO suggest their utility. /
have made repeated experiments with
many of them on the lower animals,
and have seen nothing TO induce me 10
believe that they have any good sttect
whatever. | have no hesitation in say
ing that / believe them 10 be useless,
and that, excepting for their stimulant
action, when they have any, they are
inert
II Is the old story which we have so
often heard. The sole chance appears
to be the immediate exhibition of the
most heroic remedies. The man who is
bitten by deadly snake will, if he be
wise, at once cut off the affected part,
without hesitation, treat the excised part
with the actual cautery. Terrible as
this advice may seem, ii is yet the kind
est that can be offered.
''In my own case" says DR.. Watson.
the Cicero of medicine, land what
should advise in another / should not
hesitate to use for myself-if ] had re-
ceived bite from decidedly rabid an
imal upon my arm or leg, and the bite
was of such a kind that the whole
wound could not be excised, and my
reason would teach me TO desire, and 1
hope / should have fortitude enough to
endure, amputation of the limb above
/ the place of the injury.
DR.. Watson IS here speaking Of the
bite of a rabid dog, but every word is
equally applicable 10 wound from
venomous snake. Indeed, the bite of
| full sized cobra is almost certainly NOR
tai. Snake bites are, no doubt, OF diff
erent degrees of severity. But IN the
more severe cases" observes DIR. Fayrer,
land there are over twenty thousands
deaths from such annually in India
where vigorous snake, say cobra, has
fully inoculated its poison, / fear all
drugs are alike impotent."