April 1,
SELECTIONS FROM OUR EXCHANGES.
1S73.J
dr; fayrer on cobra poison. TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE
"
INDIAN MEDICAL
GAZETTE."
Sik,?In your issue of January last, Dr. Fayrer contributes a record of experiments with cobra poison which he performed in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He shows that the poison though in n state of semi-decomposition and emitting strongly
ammoniacal odour, yet retained its potency as much as if it had been fresh from the animal. The fact does not coincide ?with my own experience, and I feel myself bound to record the statement. Mineral poison, unlike organic my dissent from animal poison, remains effective for any length of time; but the latter loses its peculiar poisonous virtue directly its chemical composition is disturbed by putrefaction and long keeping. This was the conviction I arrived at along -with Dr. 13. W. Richardson, the great experimental physician of the day, when we conjointly made some experiments in London with a specimen of cobra poison, which I carried with me to England The specimen referred to was on the occasion of my last visit. kindly given me by Baboo Kanaylall Dey, being a sample specimen contributed, 1 believe, by Dr. Fayrer himself to the Medical College Laboratory. It was kept in a small test tube, tightly corked, labelled with the date on which the poison was obtained fresh. I do not remember the exact date, but my memory assures me that it was not over a year old. It was noted, however, at the time in Dr. Hichardson's book of experiments. It. had solidified, and gave an ammoniacal smell "when the cork Its colour was dirty brown. was first opened. Early last year some four or five experiments were made on rabbits and pigeons. The solid stuff was easily miscible in water as well as in spirit, but did not dissolve in either. A few drops of this milky mixture were inserted under the skin of rabbits in the thigh, neck, and back, in three different experiments. On two other occasions the skin of the back was ripped open and the solid poison, twice the size of a pea, inserted in lump and the skin stitched I may mention once for all that in all these instances, over it. symptoms of agitation, fluttering, tremor, attempts to vomit, followed by drowsiness, came on after a quarter of an hour, and lasted for an hour and half; after which the animals recovered and regained their wonted spirit. I saw them two or three days subsequently, and found them all right, when they were used for some other experiments. We devoted two whole days to watch the cases, and I was ashamed of myself for having occupied the doctor's valuable time with a substance that had lost its virtue by keeping; yet we congratulated ourselves on having arrived at the negative conclusion that the potency of the cobra poison does not remain intact when decomposition sets in. Now that the result of our labour lias been questioned by Dr. Fayrer's experiments, I humbly beg to submit that more observations will be needed before the statement is confirmed as a fact. I may as well add, that in a meeting of the Glasgow Medico-Chirurgical Society, experiments on rabbits with somo animal poison brought over from America similarly failed in their results, though the very same substance was reported to have had a marked effect when freshly experimented with. an
G. 0.
Jeuanabad, 13tli February 1873.
Yours, &c., Roy, m.d., f.e.c.s.
109
SELECTIONS FROM OUR EXCHANGES.
1S73.J
dr; fayrer on cobra poison. TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE
"
INDIAN MEDICAL
GAZETTE."
Sik,?In your issue of January last, Dr. Fayrer contributes a record of experiments with cobra poison which he performed in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He shows that the poison though in n state of semi-decomposition and emitting strongly
ammoniacal odour, yet retained its potency as much as if it had been fresh from the animal. The fact does not coincide ?with my own experience, and I feel myself bound to record the statement. Mineral poison, unlike organic my dissent from animal poison, remains effective for any length of time; but the latter loses its peculiar poisonous virtue directly its chemical composition is disturbed by putrefaction and long keeping. This was the conviction I arrived at along -with Dr. 13. W. Richardson, the great experimental physician of the day, when we conjointly made some experiments in London with a specimen of cobra poison, which I carried with me to England The specimen referred to was on the occasion of my last visit. kindly given me by Baboo Kanaylall Dey, being a sample specimen contributed, 1 believe, by Dr. Fayrer himself to the Medical College Laboratory. It was kept in a small test tube, tightly corked, labelled with the date on which the poison was obtained fresh. I do not remember the exact date, but my memory assures me that it was not over a year old. It was noted, however, at the time in Dr. Hichardson's book of experiments. It. had solidified, and gave an ammoniacal smell "when the cork Its colour was dirty brown. was first opened. Early last year some four or five experiments were made on rabbits and pigeons. The solid stuff was easily miscible in water as well as in spirit, but did not dissolve in either. A few drops of this milky mixture were inserted under the skin of rabbits in the thigh, neck, and back, in three different experiments. On two other occasions the skin of the back was ripped open and the solid poison, twice the size of a pea, inserted in lump and the skin stitched I may mention once for all that in all these instances, over it. symptoms of agitation, fluttering, tremor, attempts to vomit, followed by drowsiness, came on after a quarter of an hour, and lasted for an hour and half; after which the animals recovered and regained their wonted spirit. I saw them two or three days subsequently, and found them all right, when they were used for some other experiments. We devoted two whole days to watch the cases, and I was ashamed of myself for having occupied the doctor's valuable time with a substance that had lost its virtue by keeping; yet we congratulated ourselves on having arrived at the negative conclusion that the potency of the cobra poison does not remain intact when decomposition sets in. Now that the result of our labour lias been questioned by Dr. Fayrer's experiments, I humbly beg to submit that more observations will be needed before the statement is confirmed as a fact. I may as well add, that in a meeting of the Glasgow Medico-Chirurgical Society, experiments on rabbits with somo animal poison brought over from America similarly failed in their results, though the very same substance was reported to have had a marked effect when freshly experimented with. an
G. 0.
Jeuanabad, 13tli February 1873.
Yours, &c., Roy, m.d., f.e.c.s.
109
