SNAKE-POISONING IN AUSTRALIA. The merits
demerits of Professor Halford's "discovery" agitate Melbourne society, medical and general; but no very precise evidence, experimental or otherwise, is forthcoming to rebut the conclusions enunciated by the Indian Snake-poisoning commission regarding the inutility of the intravenous injection of ammonia in cases of effective bites by poisonous snakes. A case has recently come to notice which or
appear still to
has again brought the question to the front.
We extract the it from the Melbourne Age. " Mr. anil Mrs. Falconer of Swan Hill were out on recently their selection, about a mile from tiie township, and whilst Mr. the in Falconer observed a garden, walking snake, and told his wife to watch it whilst, he went and got a stick. Mrs. Falconer seeing tile snake going down its hole, trod oil its tail. The snake turned sharply and bit her on the leg. This happened at about two o'clock p.m. on the 3rd of She was conveyed to Swan-hill township, and November. arrived there two hours afterwards, when it was found that she was bitten on the lower part of the leg, there being six and soon after punctures to be seen. Ammonia was injected, the battery was applied, which treatment was continued extensively during the night and following day. At aoout midday she seemed much improved, and she was allowed to lie down at four o'cIock 111 the afternoon, as she seemed to be getting better. The patient slept until about two o'clock on the following morning. She then awoke and complained of pains all over the body. Becoming worse an hour afterwards, ammonia was again applied, but she sank gradually, dying quite conscious about 6 a.m. on the same morning, 52 tiours after being bitten.
following particulars regarding
The Melbourne
this t?
case
which
Daily Telegraph makes some consider so apposite that
we
observations we
on
extract them
extenso:?
The case of the late Mrs. John Falconer should stimulate the promised medical inquiry as to the action of ammonia in In the early snakebites. That lady was bitten, and died. reports of her case it was merely mentioned that, the usuul remedies were resorted to, and no allusion whatever was made to the ammouia treatment, but the facts as stated aroused our suspicions. and we were induced to put the question point blank, and the Riverine Herald has since ascertained that atnmoma '? was injected two hours after the bite, and that the treatment was continued extensively" until death. Here is au explicit
instance of non-success with the ammonia cure and it would be curious to know how many other failures occur, and receive the benefit of a discreet silence. Is it. only the instances of recovery that are blazoned abroad ? However this may be, the sad end of the Swan Hill lady greatly strengthens the view of the Indian commission, namely, that when a dose of venom sufficient to kill has been injected by the snake, ammonia is powerless. The commission may be right or wrong. We carefully abstain from expressing any opinion on that point, but what we do insist upon is that the simple crucical test which they put in practice should be applied. No test worth the paper it is written on has ever been attempted in Victoria, and yet the problem could be conclusively solved in fortyeight hours, and at an expense of ?10. The snake can be killed, and his poison can be taken and injected into an animal, and if a full dose is administered, and if ammonia then saves the creature, why the Indian commission is answered ; and if ammonia does not save, then the Indian commission wins the victory. All that has been done hitherto is to get the snake to bite, and in that case experience teaches that ther? is not the smallest guarantee as to the quantity of the poison the bitten animal receives. It may be heavily poisoned, it may be slightly affected, and it may receive no venom at all ; and yet. it is on this unscientific foundation that To be bitten our Victorian savans have hitherto proceeded. by a poisonous snake, they have assumed, is to be fatally poisoned, although Underwood and Shires might have told them that, the bite of a poisonous snake may be as harmless as that, of a puppy. Tnat the Victorian medical profession is deeply and gravely committed to the ammonia remedy is well known, and their own reputation demands that the cure should Science also now be finally tried under test conditions. requires as much, but we make the demand in the interest and in the name of humanity. With the Indian commission unanswered, and with the Swan Hill case before us, it is not right that a blind and unreasoning reliance should be placed upon the injection of ammonia.
demerits of Professor Halford's "discovery" agitate Melbourne society, medical and general; but no very precise evidence, experimental or otherwise, is forthcoming to rebut the conclusions enunciated by the Indian Snake-poisoning commission regarding the inutility of the intravenous injection of ammonia in cases of effective bites by poisonous snakes. A case has recently come to notice which or
appear still to
has again brought the question to the front.
We extract the it from the Melbourne Age. " Mr. anil Mrs. Falconer of Swan Hill were out on recently their selection, about a mile from tiie township, and whilst Mr. the in Falconer observed a garden, walking snake, and told his wife to watch it whilst, he went and got a stick. Mrs. Falconer seeing tile snake going down its hole, trod oil its tail. The snake turned sharply and bit her on the leg. This happened at about two o'clock p.m. on the 3rd of She was conveyed to Swan-hill township, and November. arrived there two hours afterwards, when it was found that she was bitten on the lower part of the leg, there being six and soon after punctures to be seen. Ammonia was injected, the battery was applied, which treatment was continued extensively during the night and following day. At aoout midday she seemed much improved, and she was allowed to lie down at four o'cIock 111 the afternoon, as she seemed to be getting better. The patient slept until about two o'clock on the following morning. She then awoke and complained of pains all over the body. Becoming worse an hour afterwards, ammonia was again applied, but she sank gradually, dying quite conscious about 6 a.m. on the same morning, 52 tiours after being bitten.
following particulars regarding
The Melbourne
this t?
case
which
Daily Telegraph makes some consider so apposite that
we
observations we
on
extract them
extenso:?
The case of the late Mrs. John Falconer should stimulate the promised medical inquiry as to the action of ammonia in In the early snakebites. That lady was bitten, and died. reports of her case it was merely mentioned that, the usuul remedies were resorted to, and no allusion whatever was made to the ammouia treatment, but the facts as stated aroused our suspicions. and we were induced to put the question point blank, and the Riverine Herald has since ascertained that atnmoma '? was injected two hours after the bite, and that the treatment was continued extensively" until death. Here is au explicit
instance of non-success with the ammonia cure and it would be curious to know how many other failures occur, and receive the benefit of a discreet silence. Is it. only the instances of recovery that are blazoned abroad ? However this may be, the sad end of the Swan Hill lady greatly strengthens the view of the Indian commission, namely, that when a dose of venom sufficient to kill has been injected by the snake, ammonia is powerless. The commission may be right or wrong. We carefully abstain from expressing any opinion on that point, but what we do insist upon is that the simple crucical test which they put in practice should be applied. No test worth the paper it is written on has ever been attempted in Victoria, and yet the problem could be conclusively solved in fortyeight hours, and at an expense of ?10. The snake can be killed, and his poison can be taken and injected into an animal, and if a full dose is administered, and if ammonia then saves the creature, why the Indian commission is answered ; and if ammonia does not save, then the Indian commission wins the victory. All that has been done hitherto is to get the snake to bite, and in that case experience teaches that ther? is not the smallest guarantee as to the quantity of the poison the bitten animal receives. It may be heavily poisoned, it may be slightly affected, and it may receive no venom at all ; and yet. it is on this unscientific foundation that To be bitten our Victorian savans have hitherto proceeded. by a poisonous snake, they have assumed, is to be fatally poisoned, although Underwood and Shires might have told them that, the bite of a poisonous snake may be as harmless as that, of a puppy. Tnat the Victorian medical profession is deeply and gravely committed to the ammonia remedy is well known, and their own reputation demands that the cure should Science also now be finally tried under test conditions. requires as much, but we make the demand in the interest and in the name of humanity. With the Indian commission unanswered, and with the Swan Hill case before us, it is not right that a blind and unreasoning reliance should be placed upon the injection of ammonia.
