Death from Snake Bite After Injection of Ammonia Into a Vein

The intravenous injection of ammonia to treat snake bite was introduced in Australia in the late 1860’s by Dr Halford. He claimed that the treatment was very successful and the result almost immediate. The treatment was slowly taken up by some other physicians, but by the mid 1870’s it went out of favour. Many, including the Indian Snake Poisoning Commission and a Committee of the Medical Society of Victoria, reported the treatment had little to no effect. While others deemed it too dangerous because it was hard to administer accurate doses and 'overdose’ deaths often resulted.

The subcutaneous use of ammonia was only reported twice in the early 1870’s.