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 ueber den Biss der gemeinen Otter."

PRINZ MAXIMILIAN VON WIEDD.--"Beitraege zur Geschichte
Brasiliens."

LENZ.--"Schlangenkunde."

HEINZEL.--"Ueber Pelias Berus und Vipera Ammodytes."

Among the French:--

SOUBEIRAN.--"Rapport sur les Viperes de France."

BULLET.--"Etude sur la Mosure de Vipere."

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."

WALL.--"On the Difference in the Physiological Effects produced
by the Poison of Indian Venomous Snakes." Proc. Royal Soc., 1881, vol.
xxxii., p. 333.

Among those enumerated above Wall is the only one who formulated a
correct and thoroughly scientific theory of the action of snake-poison,
which has since been confir