On snake poison : its action and its antidote / by A. Mueller.

  • Mueller, A.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On snake poison : its action and its antidote / by A. Mueller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    serious cases it quickly assumes that form, f ice vevsci the deepest coma becomes sleep again, when the suspended function of the cortical centres is roused bj strychnine injections The insensible and completely paralysed patient usually announces the gradual return of consciousness by a few groans and uneasy move- ments and not unfrequently begins to snore, as in ordinary sleep, when a smart shake at the shoulder will rouse him into full consciousness. At other times this transition from coma back to sleep does not take place and consciousness returns quite suddenly, the persons opening their eyes and looking around them, dazed and bewildered, but perfectly conscious at once. When coma is fully established and the largest and most powerful motor-centres have succumbed to the insidious poison, general paresis becomes general paralysis and all the motor-centres of the body are in a condition of more or less suspended functional activity. This and this only is the condition of the centres, the whole secret of snake-poison, that has puzzled the human mind for ages and yet appears so simple when discovered at last. It is beautiful^ and strikingly illustrated in the phenomena before us. We have coma and complete general paralysis, every motor-nerve cell, from the highest psycho-motor one downwards, is thrown into a state of torpor and has ceased to discharge the life force that regulates every process of life and the entire absence of which inevit- ably must bo death. Only weak, lingering currents are sent forth yet and put off the inevitable finale for