“Treatment.—On admission to the Infirmary, A. received a hypodermic injection in the thorax of the contents of a bottle of antivenomous serum. At the same time he was given tonics (alcoholised coffee). The injured limb was placed in a hot phenic arm-bath. These baths were continued on the following days, alternately with damp dressings. Milk diet, and daily aperients.
“We saw the patient again more than a year after the accident; his recovery had been complete; there was no loss of power in the arm whatsoever, and he had never suffered from the nervous troubles mentioned by some authors as a complication ensuing after a long interval, and attributed by them to the antitoxic serum.”
XXXIV.—Case reported by M. Jean, Veterinary Surgeon of Artillery in Martinique.
“C., a negro, aged 26, employed in the artillery quarters at the Rivière d’Or, was bitten in the right leg by a snake measuring about 1 metre in length, which he declared was a Trigonocephalus. The patient came to me twenty minutes after the accident. The marks of the bite were clearly visible a hand’s breadth above the external malleolus. The wounds were inflamed, and appeared as two small red spots 1·5 cm. apart, from which a few drops of serum were exuding. I did not notice any congestion. The patient, however, complained of a feeling of weight in the leg, and supported himself upon the sound one. After making the man lie down upon a bed, I applied a tight ligature above the bitten part, and, with a penknife passed through a flame, I endeavoured to incise the wounds. The instrument, however, was blunt and I obtained but little blood.
“The treatment prescribed in Dr. Calmette’s directions was then strictly followed. With the usual antiseptic precautions, I made several hypodermic injections of the solution of hypochlorite of calcium round the bite, and injected the dose of serum indicated in two places in the abdominal wall. The patient was then vigorously rubbed and covered with woollen blankets. He was made to take two cups of a strong infusion of black coffee. Since he could not be induced to go to hospital, he was carried half an hour later to his home, where he placed himself in the hands of a ‘dresser.’
“According to information furnished by Captain Martin, who lived on the spot and was able to follow the course of the case, the patient remained throughout the day in a state of profound prostration, and had several attacks of syncope. The injured limb was greatly swollen, and the swelling, which extended to above the knee, produced a mechanical difficulty in using the joint, leading to a belief that paralysis was setting in. During the first five days the condition of the patient was so alarming as to cause a fatal issue to be apprehended. By degrees these symptoms diminished, until they disappeared about the fifth day.
“On the twentieth day, C. returned to his work. I saw him again a month later, when he was in perfect health; his leg had returned to its normal size, and all that remained were two small fibrous nodules showing where the bite had been inflicted.”
XXXV.—Case reported by Dr. Gries, Fort-de-France, Martinique.
“On June 21, 1896, a young black, who had just been bitten in the foot by a Bothrops of large size, was brought to the Fort-de-France Hospital. The entire limb was swollen and benumbed.
“Two hours after the accident I gave an injection of 10 c.c. of serum in the abdomen, and the patient was taken back to his family. I saw him again ten days later, and found that he was quite cured. His friends stated that recovery had taken place much more quickly than could have been hoped after so serious a bite, and without the usual complications.”