The Scientific American cyclopedia of formulas : partly based upon the twenty-eighth edition of Scientific American cyclopedia of receipts, notes and queries 15,000 formulas / edited by Albert A. Hopkins.
- Albert A. Hopkins
- Date:
- 1910
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Scientific American cyclopedia of formulas : partly based upon the twenty-eighth edition of Scientific American cyclopedia of receipts, notes and queries 15,000 formulas / edited by Albert A. Hopkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.
35/1096 page 21
![(Shock) (Snake Bite) the pit of the stomach, life may be de¬ stroyed without leaving any sign. This is called “death from shock.” There is pal¬ lor of the whole surface of the skin, the lips are bloodless and pale, the eyes lose their luster, and the eyeball is usually partially covered by the drooping upper lid. The skin is covered with a cold, clammy moisture, the temperature is low, and perhaps the person shivers. The mind is bewildered, the patient often in¬ sensible. Sudden and serious injuries, particularly if extensive, cause shock, as does a powerful current of electricity. The loss of blood produces or aggravates shock. Hence a slight injury with much loss of blood may be attended with more shock than a comparatively more severe injury without the logs of blood. A weak system is more easily affected by shock than a strong system. As a person grows older, there is less power available to meet injuries, therefore the aged are slow to rally from the effects of shock. Treatment.—First place the patient flat on his back, with the head low. This is an important point. The vital powers being depressed, stimulants are required. The aromatic character of brandy enables it to be retained by the stomach when whisky and other forms of alcohol are rejected. A teaspoonful on cracked ice every minute, until six or eight have been taken, is the best way to give it. If the temperature of the body is raised by it, and there seems a revival of the action of the heart, enough brandy has been given. Twenty drops of aromatic spirits of ammonia in a teaspoonful of water may be given every two minutes, until four or five doses have been taken. Ap¬ plications of heat to the extremities and “pit of the stomach” are very useful, in the shape of flannels wrung out in hot water, or bottles of hot water properly wrapped up. Mustard plasters may be used, but they are so inferior to heat for the purpose, if that can be applied, and so apt to blister, thereby making it im¬ possible to use anything else on the sur¬ face, that some reluctance is felt in ad¬ vising them. Nausea and vomiting are often present in shock, and can best be allayed by get¬ ting the patient to swallow small chips of ice whole. Ice can be chipped easily by standing the piece of ice with the grain upright and splitting off a thin edge with the point of a pin. Ammonia (smelling salts) applied to the nostrils is often useful, and cologne, on a handkerchief, is frequently pungent enough to be of service in the same way. Snake Bite. 1. —Treatment: Cauterization and liga¬ ture. Stimulants: Permanganate, liquor potassae; artificial respiration; ammonia injection. 2. —Dr. Corislano d’Utra, of Brazil, says that persons suffering with snake bite may be cured in all cases by taking- three doses, two hours apart, of 30 grains of calomel in an ounce of lemon juice. He further declares that whoever will carry about his person a bag containing from 75 to 300 grains of corrosive subli¬ mate need have no fear of serpents. They will flee from him, and, if by chance he is bitten, the bite will be harmless! 3. —Dr. B. M. Ricketts (Gincin. Lanc.- Clinic, Vol. XLI, No. 9, 1898) is author¬ ity for the following: The copperhead, coral-snake and rattlesnake are the only serpents in the United States which pos¬ sess fangs at the base of which is a sac containing poisonous fluid. The result of inoculation depends upon the dose and the size of the human being or animal. Most of the authentic cases of death of these serpents have been among children. No authentic record of death, as the re¬ sult of the bite of any of these snakes, has been found in the adult man by him¬ self. If death does not result within a few hours it is not the venom, but other agencies that produce it. The bite of the cobra is not so deadly as is generally supposed. Overstimulation from alcohol and other agencies is oftener the cause of death than virus inoculation. The ef¬ fect upon the body is more severe if the virus is injected into blood vessels. There seems to be no subject which is sur¬ rounded by so much uncertainty and ex¬ aggeration. The treatment is general and local. Strychnine nitrate hypodermically every twenty minutes until its physiological ef¬ fects are produced, or until coma is over¬ come. Alcohol, digitalis, atropine and nitroglycerine are all more or less bene¬ ficial. Locally the writer advises the use of a 1 per cent, solution of chromic acid; chloride of gold or permanganate of po¬ tassium may be substituted for chromic acid. Among other drugs he believes jaborandi, administered internally, to be of undoubtful benefit. Massage of the swollen parts and lavage of the stomach aid greatly in combating the poisoning. Sprains. These are due to the stretching and tearing of the ligaments around a joint, [21]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31361523_0035.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
