XXXVI.—Case reported by Dr. Gries, Fort-de-France, Martinique.
“About 7 a.m., on November 25, 1896, G., aged 23, a fusilier belonging to the disciplinary battalion, was bitten by a Bothrops at Fort Desaix under the following circumstances. One of his comrades had just caught the snake, and was holding its head down on the ground by means of a forked stick applied to the neck. G. passed a running noose round the reptile’s neck, but, his comrade having withdrawn the fork too soon, the snake had time to dart at him and bite him in left thumb. At the moment when he was bitten the man was squatting, but he quickly stood up, carrying with him the snake, which remained for a few seconds suspended from the thumb by its fangs, and did not let go until its victim had struck it on the head with his fist. G. immediately ran to one of his officers, who applied a tight ligature to the base of his thumb, and sent him off to the hospital, where he arrived on foot and quite out of breath, ten or twelve minutes after the accident. He was at once given a hypodermic injection of 10 c.c. of antivenomous serum in the left flank; the thumb was washed with a 1 in 60 solution of hypochlorite of calcium, after which the ligature was removed. A few moments later, thinking the case a serious one, I caused a second injection of 10 c.c. of serum to be given in the right flank.
“Immediately after being bitten the patient experienced complete loss of sensation in the limb, as far as the middle of the arm. About 9 a.m. he complained of acute shooting pains in the hand. At 11 o’clock the limb was still benumbed, but by degrees sensation returned. Profuse sweating.
“On November 26 sensation was restored in the whole limb; no inflammatory phenomena. The patient was perfectly well.
“The Bothrops on being brought to the hospital measured 1 metre 47 cm. in length.”
XXXVII.—Case reported by Dr. Lavigne, Colonial-Surgeon at Fort-de-France.
“At 7 a.m. on January 19, 1897, G., aged 22, was going along a footpath near Trouvaillant, when he was bitten in the left external malleolus by a Trigonocephalus which was rutting (a circumstance which, according to the natives, aggravates the character of the bite).
“After killing one of the reptiles (the other having escaped), the young man made his way to the detachment of gendarmery stationed close by. The officer in command applied a ligature to the upper part of the leg, cupped the man a few times, and sent information to us at the Military Hospital. On reaching the spot at 9.15 we found, on the postero-inferior surface of the left external malleolus, two small wounds resembling those caused by the bite of a snake. The leg was swollen and painful, and the patient could hardly put his foot to the ground.
“At 9.30, after taking the usual antiseptic precautions, we gave an injection of Calmette’s antivenomous serum, from a bottle dated December 26, 1896. Not having any hypochlorite of calcium at our disposal, we washed the wound with a 1 in 60 solution of hyposulphite of soda, and applied a dressing of carbolic gauze. An hour later the patient was taken to Saint Pierre in a carriage. Temperature 37·2° C. No vomiting, or tetanic phenomena. In the afternoon the pain was less acute, and the œdema seemed to have diminished a little. Mercurial ointment rubbed in.
“Four days later the patient, being cured without having had the least rise of temperature, proceeded to the country.