Case 5.—Paroati Devi, Hindu female, aged 67 years, healthy constitution. Bitten on big toe of left foot on 10th September, 1891, symptoms were as preceding. The wound was cauterised.
Treatment.—Strychnia was given very cautiously, as the patient was over-aged, the degeneration of the heart kept in view—1/10 grain eventually showed the peculiar strychnine symptoms. The patient was cured in two days and discharged cured on the third day, 14th September, 1891. This patient took in all one and a half grains of acetate of strychnia.
Case 6.—Maya Swuper, aged 38 years, bitten by echis carinata (without dots) on the lower third of the left leg, on the outside of it. Mucous membrane of the mouth, eyes, nostrils, ears, and urinary passages all bled profusely. Urine had clots in it and symptoms resembled those in the first case.
Treated with strychnine and recovered in four days. Was admitted on the 14th September, 1891, and discharged to duty on the 18th September, 1891. Took in all three grains to effect cure.
Case 7.—Avghunandan, customs semadar, aged 55 years, Hindu male. Bitten at 8 a.m. on the 29th March, 1892, by echis carinata (brown variety) on the right foot near the cuboid bone. The punctures were distinct and the symptoms like those of case 1. Bleeding was profuse in this case.
Treatment.—Strychnine acetas injected in quarter grain doses under the skin and repeated as often as desirable. Patient recovered after the sixth day and took in all four grains of strych. acet. in six days. Only the bitten leg had erysipelatous inflammation, which had to be treated afterwards, but the man was quite safe.
Remarks.—In connection with echis bites one peculiar symptom was always noticed, namely, the free oozing of blood from mucous surfaces and old scars of wounds. The power of co-ordination was very much affected from the first setting in of other symptoms. Usually after 24 hours symptoms showed a relapse. In the treatment with strychnia neither the symptoms of the drug nor of the snake-poison ever showed themselves afterwards. Both seemed to neutralise each other. Bungarus coeruleus, or kerait-bite, had its own peculiar symptoms of cyanotic patches and insensibility, swooning and stertorous breathing. The true comatose state was not present in any, but only a slight one noticed in cases 4 and 5. The other cases were generally delirious in the beginning.
Case 8.—Dr. Banerjee communicated this case to the Australasian Medical Gazette separately and quite recently, November, 1892. It is, of all his cases, the most important one. He writes:—"The following case increases my number to eight, and should clear away prejudice and prepossessed ideas, as strychnine saved this case, a bite of Duboia Russellii. This snake is admitted by all hands to be virulently poisonous, and the poison is said to be even more virulent than that of the dreaded cobra:"—
Rahimudden, aged 43, Mussulman, customs peon, admitted for treatment of snakebite on the 13th September, 1892, at 10.45 p.m., to the North India Salt Revenue Hospital, Pachhadra, Rajputana, India, and put under my treatment.
History of the Case.—The man is of strong build and healthy constitution. While on duty he went round the salt pit, near his beat. Suddenly he felt a prick on his foot, and, suspecting snakebite, struck out with a bamboo stick he carried in his hand, and heard the snake make a loud noise. He at once tore a piece of cloth from his turban, and tied it tightly above the right ankle joint round the leg, then tried to kill the snake, but could not do so with certainty, as it was dark. He reported the case to his superiors, and was carried to the hospital. Bitten at 9.30 p.m.; admitted at 10.45 p.m.