The statistics brought forward to prove that the treatment has not reduced the death-rate are also most faulty. Until it is thoroughly understood and in every instance properly applied it is manifestly foolish as well as unfair to lay non-success and failures at its door. When a medical man is called upon to treat a serious case, and instead of boldly addressing himself to the task of combating the symptoms by injecting the antidote irrespective of the quantity he may require until it has conquered the snake-poison, becomes nervous and ceases to inject, when, after what in ordinary practice would be a dangerous dose, he sees but little effect, or if from the first he injects small doses at long intervals, the cause of failure surely lies with him and not with the antidote, which rarely fails where it is properly applied. The duty of disseminating a sound knowledge of the principles of the strychnine treatment unquestionably devolves on our health authorities, who ought, by this time, to have taken some notice of it. But officialdom remains obtuse and issues circulars on the treatment of snakebite, recommending, _inter alia_, the free use of alcohol. The literature on the subject of snake-poison is very voluminous, but those who seek for enlightenment in it will be as disappointed as the writer was after wading through it. The toilers in this barren field of research were numerous, but with few exceptions, they toiled in vain. FONTANA may be looked upon as the founder of that hideous experimentalism by which, in his hands alone, four thousand animals were tortured to death without a single tangible result except that in his great work, "Reserche Fisiche sopra il Veneno della Vipera," which he wrote at the conclusion of his cruel labours, he left us a grotesque monument of patient, but ill-guided research. Other Italians, following his method, Redi, Mangili, Metaxa, &c., were equally unsuccessful in shedding one ray of light on the vexed and obscure problem. Among the Germans who contributed to the subject may be mentioned:-- WAGNER.--"Erfahrungen über den Biss der gemeinen Otter." PRINZ MAXIMILIAN VON WIEDD.--"Beiträge zur Geschichte Brasiliens." LENZ.--"Schlangenkunde." HEINZEL.--"Ueber Pelias Berus und Vipera Ammodytes." Among the French:-- SOUBEIRAN.--"Rapport sur les Vipéres de France." BULLET.--"Etude sur la Mosure de Vipére." British and American Workers are the most numerous. Commencing with the century we have:-- RUSSELL.--"An Account of Indian Serpents, collected on the Coast of Coromandel." Later on, S. WEIR MITCHELL.--"Researches upon the Venom of the Rattlesnake." HALFORD--"On Australian Snakes, and the Intravenous Injection of Ammonia, in _British Medical Journal_, _Medical Times_, and _Australian Medical Journal_." JONES.--"On Trigonocephalus Contortrix." NICHOLSON.--"On Indian Snakes." SIR JOSEPH FAYRER.--"The Tanatophidia of India." Also, "Researches in conjunction with Richards, Brunton and Eward."