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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    the doses in which it is injected and the intervals between them must be left to the practitioner’s judg- ment, as they depend in every case on the quantity of snake-poison absorbed, the time elapsed since its in- ception and the corresponding greater or lesser urgency of the symptoms. If the latter denote a large dose to have been imparted and it has been in the system for hours, delay is dangerous and nothing less than 16 minims of liq. strychnine P.B., in very urgent cases even 20 to 25 minims should be injected to any person over 15 years of age. Even children may require these large doses, as they are determined by the quantity of the poison they have to counteract and are kept in check by it. The action of the antidote is so prompt and decisive that not more than 15 to 20 minutes need to elapse, after the first injection, before further measures can be decided on. If the poisoning symp- toms show no abatement by that time, a second injection of the same strength should be made promptly, and unless after it a decided improvement is perceptible, a third one after the same interval. As the action of strychnine when applied as anti- dote is not cumulative, no fear needs to be entertained of violent effects suddenly breaking out after these large doses repeated at short intervals. They are, so to say, swallowed up by the snake-poison and remain latent except in counteracting the latter. This has now been proven abundantly by scores of qualified observers in all parts of Australia, and still more by Banerjee in India. No hesitation, therefore,