Observations and experiments on the efficacy and modus operandi of cupping-glasses, in preventing and arresting the effects of poisoned wounds / by Caspar Wistar Pennock.

  • Pennock, C. W. (Caspar Wistar), 1799-1867.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations and experiments on the efficacy and modus operandi of cupping-glasses, in preventing and arresting the effects of poisoned wounds / by Caspar Wistar Pennock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    19/27
    One of the rabbits died several days afterward, but under circum- stances which rendered the cause of his death very doubtful. The other rabbit and dog did not exhibit any signs of poisoning. Not willing to abandon the research on the effects of the poison, and hoping to succeed in procuring it possessing a fatal power, I purchased another wiake. This was decapitated: about ten drops of a viscid fluid of a yellowish-green tinge, was found in the poison bag. This was injected through a glass tube, with a capillary ex- tremity beneath the skin and integuments, and to the depth of one- eighth of an inch into the muscles of the thighs of three rabbits. None of these animals died in consequence. From these experiments it is evident, that the fluid existing in the sac and secreting organs of these snakes was entirely destitute of active poisonous properties. The difference of the habits of the animal whilst in captivity, from those of a state of nature, and the want of a proper subsistence for several preceding months, are doubtless among the causes pro- ducing the inertness of the secretion. These results furnish addi- tional evidence that the supposed specifics for the bite of a rattle- snake owe their reputation to their having been used in cases wherein no fatal effects would have resulted. The want of success in obtaining an animal whose bite would in- fallibly produce dangerous consequences, compelled me to defer any further investigation of the subject. To this postponement I have consented with reluctance. I hope, however, to renew the experi- ments under more favourable auspices, and I am sanguine in the be- lief that the results of the application of cupping-glasses will be pre- cisely analogous with those, mentioned in the preceding details of ex- periments on other poisons. Such were the effects observed by Dr. Barry, in his investigations on the bite of the viper. He made experiments on rabbits and dogs, and found that the animals bitten by one, two, and sometimes three vipers, when the cupping-glass was applied for half an hour, suffered none of the effects whatever of constitutional poisoning; whilst those that were left to nature were invariably attacked with convulsions, stupor, and the dogs by vomiting. That the local action of the viper's venom, so marked and rapid in its effects, seems to be con- centrated by the cupping-glass within its own bounds—that the va- cuum sucks a reddish serum in considerable quantities through the skin of animals in which it is thin, and almost invariably in these cases the poison appeared to have been removed from the wound.