Remarks on the Uses of some of the Bazaar Medicines and Common Medical Plants of India / With a full index of diseases, indicating their treatment by these and other agents procurable throughout India; to which are added directions for treatment in cases of drowning, snake-bites &c.

by Edward John Waring

APPEARANCES WHICH GENERALLY INDICATE DEATH.

There is no breathing or heart's action; the eyelids are generally half closed; the pupils dilated; the jaws clenched; the fingers semi-contracted; the tongue appearing between the teeth, and the mouth and nostrils are covered with a frothy mucus. Coldness and pallor of surface increase.

[3] A good plan is to turn the body gently over for a few seconds with the face to the ground, one of the hands being placed under the forehead. By this means the water will run out of the mouth and the tongue will fall forward, leaving the breathing opening free. On no account should the body be held up by the feet as has been advised by some old writers.

APPENDIX B.
SUMMARY OF TREATMENT OF PERSONS BITTEN BY VENOMOUS SNAKES.[4]

As soon as possible after a person is bitten by a snake, apply a ligature, made of a piece of cord, round the limb or part at about two or three inches above the bite.

Introduce a piece of stick or other lever between the cord and the part, and by twisting tighten the ligature to the utmost (See Stick Tourniquet, p. 224).

Apply other two or three ligatures above the first one at intervals of four or six inches, and tighten them also. After the ligature has been applied, scarify by cutting across the puncture to the depth of a quarter of an inch with a penknife or other similar cutting instrument, and let the wounds bleed freely; or better still, excise the punctured part.

Apply either a hot iron or live coal to the bottom of these wounds as quickly as possible, or some carbolic or nitric acid.

If the bite be not on a finger or toe or part where a ligature can be applied, raise up the integument with the finger and thumb, and with a sharp penknife cut out a circular piece as big as a finger nail round each puncture, i.e., round the points of the finger and thumb, to the depth of quarter to half an inch. Then apply the hot coal or hot iron to the very bottom of the wounds.

Give fifteen drops of Liquor Ammoniæ, diluted with an ounce of water, immediately, and repeat it every quarter of an hour for three or four doses, or longer, if symptoms of poisoning appear.

Or give hot brandy, or rum, or whisky, or other spirit, with an equal quantity of water, about an ounce of each (for an adult) at the same intervals.

Should no symptoms of poisoning appear in half an hour after the application of the ligatures they should be relaxed, or the part will perish from gangrene; if they should, however, appear, the ligatures should not be relaxed until the person be recovering from the poison, or until the ligatured part be cold and livid.

Suction of the wounds is likely to be beneficial, but as it may be dangerous to the operator, it cannot be recommended as a duty.

If, notwithstanding, symptoms of poisoning set in, and increase, if the patient become faint or depressed, unconscious, nauseated or sick, apply Mustard Poultices, or Liquor Ammoniæ on a cloth, over the stomach and heart; continue the stimulants, and keep the patient warm, but do not shut him up in a hot, stifling room or small native hut; rather leave him in the fresh air than do this.

Do not make him walk about if weary or depressed; rouse him with stimulants, mustard poultices, or ammonia, but let him rest.

If the person be first seen some time after the bite has been inflicted, and symptoms of poisoning are present, the same measures are to be resorted to. They are less likely to be successful, but nothing else can be done.

In many cases the prostration is due to fear; the bite may have been that of a harmless or exhausted snake, and persons thus bitten will rapidly recover under the use of the above measures. If poisoned, but, as is frequently the case, not fatally, these measures are the most expedient; if severely poisoned, no others are likely to be more efficacious.

People should be warned against incantations, popular antidotes, and loss of time in seeking for aid.

To the above remarks, Sir J. Fayrer adds: "The measures suggested are no doubt severe, and not such as under other circumstances should be entrusted to non-professional persons. But the alternative is so dreadful that even at the risk of unskilful treatment, it is better that the patient should have this chance of recovery."