From the bite of the cobra or krait, horned cattle and horses never known to recover; of course it is not until the animal shows symptoms of poisoning that attention is called to it. Two or three valuable horses are killed by kraits in the stud here every year. I must confess that I can see no reasonable hope that there can be any remedy capable of counteracting the poisonous properties of snake poison ; and 1 apprehend that if a sufficient quantity to cause death in a cow or horse is admitted into a man's circulation, the death of that man is certain. In cases where the amount of poison is barely sufficient to destroy life, a stimulant might turn the scale, and should of course always be used. I have found turpentine most useful in jss. doses in checking the hannorrhagic tendency after bites of the smaller viper. are

CASE OF BITE OP COBRA: RECOVERY.

By Surgeon-Major H. Cookson, f.e.c.s., Civil Surgeon, Kurnal. In July 1864, when at Googaira, I occupied a house about 40 yards from the Post Office, where the bullock train carts used to change bullocks. One evening, while sitting out of doors after dark, I heard the cart arrive, and the sound of the pole of the cart striking the ground, and almost at the same time a man cried out that he was bitten by a snake. I, and the friend I lived with, ran over to the man, who was hammering away at the dead snake with his goad. "We tied three bandages tight round the bitten leg, one just above the bite, which was on the outer ankle, at the apex of the triangular space where the fibula is subcutaneous, another just below the knee, and a third above the knee. They were made of the man's turban, and were twisted by He was then carried over to the means of sticks very tight. bungalow.' A lancet was used to scarify the bites, and a small apparatus, which was in readiness, applied to the wounds, by means of which much blood, and presumably much of the poison, waa removed. This apparatus consisted of some ten inches of 05 glass tubing, ground flat at one end, and with a cork and piece of india-rubber tubing at the other. By sucking at the tubing quite a sufficient vacuum can be formed in the tube if and by pinching it a stiff piece of rubber tubing is selected, between the fingers the tube answered all the purpose of a valve. When as much blood. &c., as possible had been removed, a hot coal was used freely as actual cautery. After about au hour the man began to get drowsy, in spite of the pain from the bandages, and brandy was given him off and on until 4 a.m. The next morning when he became very drunk, and was finally allowed to go to sleep at 6 a. m., he slept for about two hours, when the bandages were removed as there was fear of mortification ensuing. The man made a good recovery. There was a troublesome wound, which sloughed a good deal where the bite was situated, but he went back to his work in ten days. The snake was a large male spectacled cobra, said by the natives to be the husband of one I had killed a few days before,

and who had gone about to revenge the death of his mate. The object in the treatment adopted was?1st, to stop the circulation, arterial, and venous as much as possible ; 2nd, to remove the poison by suction; 3rd, by cautery to put the tissues around the bite into such a condition as to unfit them for

absorption.

The man described the snake as striking at him, and when he drew back his leg that the snake came with it holding on for a time. I have had another opportunity of using the apparatus above described, but I did not see the snakes; and the natives' testimony about the nature of the snake is valueless. The common poisonous snakes in this district (Kurnal) are the cobra, of the variety pictured in Fayrer's work, plate 5, central figure, and the common krait. This latter is the commonest snake killed. The smaller viper named in Fayrer's work, echis carinata, is also common in the higher lands, and I have seen one specimen, and a very fine one of ltussell's viper.

Case of Bite of Cobra: Recovery.

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