On Snake-Poison E-Book

A. Mueller

• Herausgeber: Science & Technology Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 120

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

On Snake-Poison: Its Action and Its Antidote by Sir Joseph Fayrer is a pioneering medical treatise that delves into the complex and often deadly effects of snake venom on the human body, as well as the search for effective antidotes. Drawing on his extensive experience as a physician in British India, Fayrer meticulously documents the physiological symptoms and pathological changes caused by the bites of various venomous snakes, including cobras, kraits, and vipers. The book presents detailed case studies, experimental observations, and autopsy findings, offering a comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms by which snake-poison acts on the nervous, circulatory, and respiratory systems. Fayrer critically examines the prevailing theories of his time, challenging misconceptions and providing evidence-based insights into the nature of snake venom. He discusses the limitations of traditional remedies and evaluates the efficacy of various treatments, including ligatures, excision, cauterization, and the use of chemical antidotes. The author also explores the potential for developing a universal antidote, emphasizing the importance of prompt and appropriate medical intervention. Richly illustrated with engravings and diagrams, On Snake-Poison: Its Action and Its Antidote serves as both a scientific reference and a practical guide for medical professionals, naturalists, and anyone interested in the dangers posed by venomous snakes. Fayrer’s work is notable for its rigorous methodology, clear exposition, and compassionate concern for the victims of snakebite, making it a landmark contribution to the fields of toxicology, tropical medicine, and public health.

Leseprobe

Transcriber's Note

This book does not have a Table of Contents. One has been provided for the convenience of the reader.

A. Mueller, M.D.

ON SNAKE-POISON.

ITS ACTION

AND

ITS ANTIDOTE.

BY

A. MUELLER, M.D.

Sydney: L. BRUCK, MEDICAL PUBLISHER, 13 Castlereagh Street. 1893.

Sydney:Webdale, Shoosmith & Co.., Printers, 117 Clarence Street. 1893.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Preface i  Historical Review 1 Snake-poison and Its Action 15 The Antidote 41 Cases 50 Unsuccessful Cases 72 Conclusion 79

PREFACE.

Since the method of treating snakebite-poisoning by hypodermic injections of strychnine, discovered by the writer and published but a few years ago, has already been adopted by the medical profession throughout the Australian colonies, and practised even by laymen in cases of urgency with much success, it has been repeatedly suggested to him that the subject calls for further elucidation at his hands; that the morbid processes engendered by the snake venom and the modus operandi of the antidote should be explained by him in a manner satisfying the demands of science, and at the same time within the grasp of the intelligent, moderately educated layman. When the latter, in a case of pressing emergency and in the absence of medical aid, is called upon to administer a potent drug in heroic doses, the aggregate of which would be attended by serious consequences in the absence of the deadly ophidian virus, an intelligent insight alone into the process he is about to initiate will give him that decision and promptitude of action, on the full exercise of which on his part it may depend whether, within a few hours, a valuable and to him probably dear life will be saved or lost.

The foregoing applies, not to Australia only, but to all other countries infested by venomous snakes. The introduction of the writer's method in every one of these countries is merely a question of time, for snake-poison acts everywhere according to one uniform principle, however different the symptoms it produces may appear to the superficial observer. The antidote, therefore, that cures snakebite in Australia will as surely cure it elsewhere if properly and efficiently applied.

To his Australian confrères, more especially to those who adopted his method but had to practise it more or less empirically, the writer also owes a more elaborate explanation of his theory of the action of snake-poison in all its bearings on the various nerve centres than is to be found in the scattered writings he has from time to time published in our periodical literature. His warmest thanks are due to them for the records of cases they have furnished to the Australasian Medical Gazette, and to the Hon. J. M. Creed, its able editor, for the ample space he has invariably allotted to the subject, and the valuable support he has given him throughout. By our united efforts we have reared in a dark and hitherto barren field of research a column of solid knowledge, and on this column Australia now occupies the highest and will ever occupy the most prominent place.

Not the least pleasing feature in the history of this discovery is the fact that it has been made without an elaborate series of experiments on animals, that it is a peaceful conquest not attained by means of doubtful justification, and which have hitherto invariably failed in their object. This object—the discovery of the coveted antidote—instead of being brought nearer, was, in fact, further removed by every succeeding series of experiments. However fruitful in results this mode of research has been in other domains, in this particular one it has not only been a failure but an actual bar to progress. Nature invariably refused to yield her secret when thus interrogated. The tortured animals, like the victims of Torquemada, either did not answer at all or they answered with a lie, and the baffled experimenter abandoned his task in despair.

Still, these negative results notwithstanding, the writer is confronted by a certain class of would-be rigorous scientists, who tell him that his theory of the action of snake-poison, though it explains all the phenomena, cannot be accepted as correct until it has been proven so by strict test experiments on animals, and that the successful administration of the antidote is proof only of the fact of neither antidote nor snake-poison having killed the patients, who, probably, might have recovered if left to themselves. This may be strict logic, but common sense replies to it that if recovery takes place after proper administration of the antidote in cases which, according to all our previous experience, would have ended fatally, it is not illogical to assume that antidote and recovery stand in the relation of cause and effect. This sceptical attitude of the scientific mind can justly be maintained only with regard to cases limited in number and in which the symptoms left room for doubt as to their final result, but in view of the formidable and constantly increasing records of cures from snakebite during the last three years, it is, to say the least of it, unreasonable.

The demand for experiments on animals, in proof of the correctness of his theory, the writer does not feel called upon to satisfy, for, apart from the theory proving itself by explaining all the symptoms the snake-poison produces, it has also stood the test of practical application. It is proven to be correct by the success of the antidote to which it led, and which is the logical outcome of it. After finally attaining a goal one has striven for, it is quite unnecessary to retrace one's steps with a view of ascertaining whether the road that has led up to it is the right and proper one.

By a fortuitous concurrence of circumstances, however, even this demand for experiments shall be satisfied in these pages. The writer published his theory of the action of snake-poison in May, 1888, after having practised the strychnine treatment for some years and thoroughly satisfied himself of its efficacy. In the latter part of 1888 accounts of Feoktistow's researches reached this country. His final conclusions to the effect that snake-poison is solely a nerve poison, that it does not destroy protoplasm, and has no effect whatever on the blood to which its destructive potency on animal life can be ascribed, were in complete harmony with the writer's views, in fact, a re-statement of his theory. It was a strange coincidence, or whatever it may be called, that, independent of each other, at almost opposite parts of the globe, and by opposite methods, we had arrived at almost identical conclusions. Those of Feoktistow were drawn from 400 elaborate experiments on animals, both vertebrates and invertebrates, made in the laboratory of Professor Kobert at the University of Dorpat and in that of Professor Owsjannikow at the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg. The writer's conclusions, on the other hand, resulted entirely from a careful and happy analysis of the symptoms observed at the bedside of his patients suffering from snakebite. On one point only, but the most important one, he differs from Feoktistow. The latter shared the fate of all previous experimenters on animals. Though his experiments with snake-poison led him to the correct theory of its action, and even to the correct antidote, his experiments with strychnine and snake-poison were a failure. The animals experimented on died, and, falling into the error of his predecessors, mistaking the functional analogy that exists between the nerve centres of the lower animals and those of man for absolute identity, which does not exist, especially not when they are under the influence of the two poisons, he concluded his researches with the confession that a physiological antidote for snake-poison cannot even be thought of at the present state of science. Although, therefore, Feoktistow's labors would have led to no practical result, they are, nevertheless, a most valuable contribution to science as being the first to demonstrate the action of snake-poison on a strictly scientific, experimental basis. For this reason, and with so high an authority as Professor Kobert vouching for the correctness of the experiments, they will be frequently quoted hereafter.

HISTORICAL REVIEW.

Snakebite and its cure have always been the despair of medical science. On no other subject has our knowledge remained for centuries so unsatisfactory, fragmentary and empirical. The history of the subject, in fact, may be summed up briefly as a series of vain and spasmodic attempts to solve the problem of snakebite-poisoning and wring from nature the coveted antidote.

Various and contradictory theories of the action of snake-poison have been propounded, some absolutely erroneous, others containing a modicum of truth mixed with a large proportion of error, but none but one fulfilling the indispensable condition of accounting for all the phenomena observable during the poisoning process and of reducing the formidable array of conflicting symptoms to order by finding the law that governs them all. We have the advocates of the blood-poison theory ascribing the palpable nerve-symptoms to imaginary blood changes produced by the subtle poison, and alleged to have been discovered by the willing, but frequently deceiving microscope. Even bacteriology has been laid under service and innocent leucocytes have been converted under the microscope into deadly germs, introduced by the reptile, multiplying with marvellous rapidity in the blood of its victims, appropriating to themselves all the available oxygen and producing carbonic acid, as the saccharomyces does in alcoholic fermentation. Others again, and among them those supposed to be the highest authorities on the subject now living, divide the honors between nerve and blood. Some snakes they allege are nerve-poisoners others as surely poison the blood, but with one solitary exception they assume the terminations of the motor-nerves and not the centres to be affected.

Thus then with regard to theories we have hitherto had "confusion worse confounded," and as with theories so it has been with antidotes. They were proposed in numbers, but only to be given up again, some intended to decompose and destroy the subtle poison in the system, others to counteract its action on the system with that action unknown. It is scarcely too much to assert that there are but few chemicals and drugs in the materia medica that have not been tried as antidotes in experiments on animals and dozens upon dozens that have been tried in vain on man.

The reasons for this somewhat chaotic state of our science on a subject of so much interest to mankind are various. The countries of Europe, in which scientific research is most keenly pursued, have but few indigenous, and these comparatively harmless snakes. The best scientific talent has, therefore, only exceptionally been brought to bear on the subject. In those countries on the other hand in which venomous snakes abound and opportunities for observing the poison-symptoms on man are more plentiful, the observing element has been comparatively deficient.

A still more potent source of failure must be sought in the faulty methods of research pursued by most investigators. Experiments on animals were far too much resorted to, and their frequently misleading results accepted as final, whilst observations on man did not receive the attention their importance demanded.

In the investigation of this subject the first desideratum was no doubt to find the correct theory of the action of snake poison and to define the law governing that action, assuming as a working hypothesis that there is but one law for all snake-poison and not several ones, just as there is one law for the structure of these reptiles, admitting of variations, but not of absolute divergence from the general plan. The shortest and surest way to find this law is close observation and careful analysis of the symptoms produced by the poison on man, and as the opportunities for such observation are not of frequent occurrence to the individual, co-operation and careful comparison of notes on the part of many observers.

This method of investigation, which, during the last few years, has been pursued in Australia with most satisfactory results, was never practised anywhere else, not even in America, but instead of it each observer, with few exceptions, kept his own notes to himself, and if there happened to be one here and there hungry for more knowledge than his scanty opportunities for observation on man would supply, his resort was usually experiments on animals. A few snakes were caught, a few luckless dogs or other animals procured, and the slaughter of the innocents began.

As test experiments to confirm observations on man, or made with a view of finding a correct theory of the action of snake-poison, these attempts were unobjectionable, although, without an elaborate scientific apparatus and in other than skilled hands, they were not likely to produce results of any value. But most of the experimenters were not content with purely theoretical aims. They were seeking to find the antidote by a purely empirical method, and had nothing to guide them in the choice of drugs. A dose of snake-poison was administered to an animal, and then a dose of some drug or chemical, chosen ad libitum, sent after it. Next day another presumed antidote was tried, another animal slaughtered, and so on ad nauseam, until finally the baffled antidote-searcher, not one whit the wiser for all his trouble and the useless tortures inflicted, confessed himself beaten and joined in the "non possums" of his predecessors.

One important point has been completely left out of sight and ignored in all this experimenting on animals. It is the fact that the action of snake-poison on the human system and on that of animals, more especially dogs, though very similar, is not absolutely identical, and that for this reason alone results of experiments on the latter cannot be indiscriminately