CASE 18.--Very remarkable. Read by Dr. Forbes, medical officer of
hospital, Charters Towers, Queensland, before the North Queensland
Medical Society. Boy, 6 years old, was admitted to hospital at 9
p.m. on 27th October, 1890, bitten on foot by a death adder, which
was killed and identified. Dr. Forbes reports: When seen by me,
two hours after the accident, he was sitting on his mother's knee
with his head hanging on one side, but quite conscious, and
answering questions rationally, pupils widely dilated with almost
no reaction to light, pulse very fast and soft, &c. Thinking his
condition might be due to fear I hesitated to use strychnine. So,
ordering strong coffee, I hurried to attend an accident case just
admitted with severe hæmorrhage, and left the boy in charge of a
nurse, with orders to call me at once if she saw any change. I had
scarcely been away 15 minutes when the father rushed in saying his
boy was dead, and indeed his statement seemed but too true. The
child was lying quite limp, face blue, eyes half shut, extremities
very cold, no pulse perceptible, no respiration visible. I at once
injected m. x. of liq. strychniæ P.B. and made artificial
respiration. He soon began to improve, and in about 20 minutes was
able to speak. He was watched all night, but suffered no relapse,
and was discharged on the next day.
CASES 19 TO 21, reported by Dr. Weekes, of Lithgow, N.S.W. Dr.
Weekes writes:--"Within the last year I have had three cases under
my care, all bitten by black snakes, and all in about the same
place, on the outside of the calf of the leg. The patients were
all comatose, exhibiting all the usual symptoms of
snakebite-poisoning, and in one, my last case, _the patient had
convulsions_. In all of them I made hypodermic injections of m.
xv. liq. strych., and the effects were most marked, the patients
being completely roused and becoming quite sensible and rational
each time," &c.
CASE 22.--Mrs. Ryan, of Oberon, N.S.W., bitten on leg by tiger
snake, comatose and nearly pulseless after three hours, treated by
Dr. Kingsburry, amount of strychnine not stated.
CASE 23.--Benjamin Childs, bitten on finger by death adder,
treated by Dr. Campbell, of Grafton, N.S.W.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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