rpent poisoning are measures looking to the
prompt cutting off of the circulation of the affected part, and the
direct stimulation of the heart's action and the respiratory organs,
until such a time as Nature shall have eliminated all toxical
evidences; and these must necessarily be mechanical. Alcoholic
stimulants are available only as they act mechanically in sustaining
cardiac and pulmonary activity, and where their free use is prolonged
efficacy is quickly exhausted, and they tend rather to hasten a fatal
result. They are devoid of the slightest antidotal properties, and in
no way modify the activity of the venom; and an intoxicated person, so
far from enjoying the immunity with which he is popularly credited, is
far more apt to succumb to the virus than him of unfuddled intellect.
The reasons are obvious. Theoretically, for purely physiological and
therapeutic reasons _amyl nitrite_ should be of incalculable value,
though I have no knowledge of its use in this connection, since its
vapor when inhaled is a most powerful stimulator of cardiac action,
and when administered by the mouth it is unapproached in its control
of spasmodically contracted vessels and muscles. The relief its vapor
affords in the collapse of chloroform anaesthesia, in which dissolution
is imminent from paralyzed heart's action, is instantaneous, and its
effect upon the spasmodic and suffocative sensations of hydrophobia
are equally prompt. Moreover, without further discussing its
physiological functions, it is the nearest approach to an antidote to
certain zymotic poisons, and especially valuable in warding off and
aborting the action of the ferment that gives rise to pertussis, or
whooping cough. _Iodide of ethyl_ is another therapeutical measure
that is worthy of consideration; and _iodoform_ in the treatment of
the sequelae incident to recovery.

The native population of India, in spite of the contrary accepted
opinion, are remarkably free from resort to nostrums that lay claim to
being antidotes. The person inoculated by the cobra is at once seized
by his friends, and constant and violent exercise enforced, if
necessary at the point of stick, and severe and cruel (but
nevertheless truly merciful) beatings are often a result. In this we
see a direct application, without in the least understanding them, of
the rules laid down to secure certain physiological results, as for
the relief of opium and morphia narcosis, which serpent poisoning
almo