hi consequence of the Bite of a Rattle-snake. 21 7 



It appears from the facts which have been stated, that 

 the effects of the bite of a snake vary according to the in- 

 tensity of the poison. 



When the poison is very active, the local irritation is so 

 sudden and so violent, and its effects on the general system 

 are so great, that death soon takes place. When the body 

 is afterwards inspected, the only alteration of structure met 

 with, is in the parts close to the bite, where the cellular 

 membrane is completely destroyed, and the neighbouring 

 muscles very considerably inflamed. * 



When the poison is less intense, the shock to the general 

 system does not prove fatal. It brings on a slight degree 

 of delirium, and the pain in the part bitten is very severe; 

 in about half an hour, swelling takes place from an effu- 

 sion of serum in the cellular membrane, which continues 

 to increase with greater or less rapidity for about twelve 

 hours, extending during that period into the neighbourhood 

 of the bite ; the blood ceases to flow in the smaller vessels 

 of the swoln parts ; the skin over them becomes quite cold, 

 the action of the heart is so weak, that the pulse is scarcely- 

 perceptible, and the stomach is so irritable, that nothing 

 is retained in it. In about (50 hours these symptoms go 

 off, inflammation and suppuration take place in the injured 

 parts, and when the abscess formed is very great, it proves 

 fatal. When the bite has been in the finger, that part has 

 immediately mortified. When death has taken place under 

 such circumstances, the absorbent vessels and their glands 

 have undergone no chance similar to the effect of morbid 

 poisons, flor has any part lost its natural appearance, ex- 

 cept those immediately connected with the abscess. 



In those patients who recover with difficulty from the 

 bite, the symptoms produced by it go off more readily, and 

 more completely, than those produced by a morbid poison 

 which has been received into the system. 



The violent effects which the poison produces on the part 

 bitten, and on the general system, and the shortness of their 

 duration, where they o*o not terminate fatally, has frequently 

 induced the belief, that the recovery depended on the me- 

 dicines employed ; and 10 the East Indies eau de luce is 

 considered as a specific for the cure of the bite of the cobra 

 fii capello. 



There does not appear to be any foundation for such an 

 opinion; for, when the poison is so intense as to give a 

 sufficient shock to the constitution, death immediately takes 

 place, and where the poison produces a local injury of suf- 

 ficient 



