ratic, capricious, and insidious
course the snake-poison takes at times.

* * * * *

A handsome girl of 17 is bitten in a bathroom on the back of the second
right toe at dusk on a Sunday evening by a half-grown tiger snake,
subsequently caught and killed in the room. She does not suspect
snakebite, and no ligature is applied until the poison has been
absorbed and overpowers her. Instead of sinking into coma, she becomes
unconscious for a short time only. Her brain then clears itself, and all
symptoms seem to disappear so completely that when a medical man of
undoubted ability and skill sees her a few hours after the bite, she
declares herself quite well again, and does not appear to require any
treatment, least of all that by strychnine injections. She passes a good
night, but on Monday morning symptoms denoting paresis of the
respiratory and glosso-pharyngeal centres make their appearance, almost
identical with those described by Indian writers as following
cobra-bite. She has difficulty in breathing and swallowing, but one
injection of 1/10th of a grain removes it completely and speedily, and
once more all danger is thought to be past. On Monday evening, however,
dyspnoea and dysphagia appear again in an aggravated form. The urine
also becomes scanty and loaded with albuminates. Strychnine now is again
resorted to, but it fails to act as before, and from hour to hour the
young lady's condition becomes more critical. When the writer reached
her on Tuesday afternoon, 42 hours after the bite, paralysis of the
centres named was imminent, and her case appeared a hopeless one, unless
a vigorous use of strychnine yet turned the scales in her favour.
One-tenth grain doses were therefore injected every half-hour, and
continued until the physiological action of the drug showed itself. This
took place, but failed to have the least effect on the affected
centres; and complete paralysis ensued 45 hours after the infliction of
the fatal bite.

The first lesson the Australian practitioner should learn from this sad
case is that of extreme care and caution in dealing with any case of
snakebite, no matter how slight it may appear at first sight. It is not
for the first time we have been taught this lesson, though it has
rarely, if ever, been conveyed in so singular a manner. Recent
utterances about the innocuousness of Australian snake-poison find a
fitting answer in this melancholy occurrence.

The