stances acting on the system in a
manner the exact reverse of, and in direct antagonism to the
snake-poison, though apparently the only feasible ones, have been
strangely neglected and almost despised by experimenters.

In the vast storehouse of Nature the department most likely to furnish
such antidotes is the vegetable kingdom. The untutored human mind has
for centuries past intuitively clung to this idea, and sought among
plants for remedies against the deadly ophidian poison. Hence the great
number of vegetable antidotes that have from time to time been
recommended and the efficacy of some of which at least has been
confirmed by reliable observations. But the hint thus given to science
was not taken. Instead of research being pushed on diligently in the
only direction that promised any chance of success, it was cut short by
the baneful method of experimenting on animals. When it had been
demonstrated that a dog, a cat, or other animal, after having been
saturated with snake-poison, did not recover after the administration of
an alleged antidote, the illogical conclusion was drawn at once that it
could not possibly be of any use to man, whilst, in reality, the only
proof rendered by the experiment, if made properly, was that the
respective antidote could not be relied on in treating animals of the
class experimented on. That some of these despised antidotes are worth a
little further investigation may, in the light of present experience as
to the value of strychnine in snakebite, be inferred from the fact, that
among them is the wood of _Strychnos Colubrina_, and also the well-known
_Huang Noo_, a vegetable extract made from another variety of the
Strychnos family, and largely used by the Chinese, whilst, according to
a letter in the _Australasian Medical Gazette_, July, 1892, the
principal ingredient of a strange compound used by the native snake
doctors of Central America with much success is _Nux Vomica_.

It is superfluous to enter into a criticism of the treatment of
snakebite until recently in vogue, for, with the exception of the local
one by ligature and excision, it stands self-condemned by its complete
inefficiency. It may be summed up as a vain attempt to stem the
collapse invariably attending snakebite by the administration of
stimulants, such as alcohol, ether, ammonia, &c. The attempt is vain,
for a person in collapse from snakebite cannot be stimulated by any of
these remedies, since neither the heart