She brought me a water-bottle and glass from the wash-stand and then,
with a groan of despair, hurried from the room.

I lost no time in applying the remedies that I had to hand. Shaking out
into the tumbler a few crystals of potassium permanganate, I filled it
up with water and approached the patient. His stupor was profound. I
shook him as roughly as was safe in his depressed condition, but
elicited no resistance or responsive movement. As it seemed very
doubtful whether he was capable of swallowing, I dared not take the risk
of pouring the liquid into his mouth for fear of suffocating him. A
stomach-tube would have solved the difficulty, but, of course, I had not
one with me. I had, however, a mouth-speculum which also acted as a gag,
and, having propped the patient's mouth open with this, I hastily
slipped off one of the rubber tubes from my stethoscope and inserted
into one end of it a vulcanite ear-speculum to serve as a funnel. Then,
introducing the other end of the tube into the gullet as far as its
length would permit, I cautiously poured a small quantity of the
permanganate solution into the extemporized funnel. To my great relief a
movement of the throat showed that the swallowing reflex still existed,
and, thus encouraged, I poured down the tube as much of the fluid as I
thought it wise to administer at one time.

The dose of permanganate that I had given was enough to neutralize any
reasonable quantity of the poison that might yet remain in the stomach.
I had next to deal with that portion of the drug which had already been
absorbed and was exercising its poisonous effects. Taking my hypodermic
case from my bag, I prepared in the syringe a full dose of atropine
sulphate, which I injected forthwith into the unconscious man's arm. And
that was all that I could do, so far as remedies were concerned, until