350 VENOMS 



finger and hand were swollen. A few minutes later we gave 

 a second injection of serum. Until evening (the accident took 

 place at 11 a.m.) the patient suffered from nausea, but sweating 

 set in, and at 7 o'clock the temperature had risen to 36'7° C. The 

 feeling of depression was much less. On the following day the 

 symptoms had disappeared, and forty-eight hours afterwards the 

 patient returned to duty." 



K.— Bitis arietans (Puff Adder). 



XXXII.— Case reported by Dr. P. M. Travers, Chilubula 

 Mission, North-eastern Ehodesia. 



" On Thursday, September 6, 1906, information was brought to 

 me that a child, aged 7 or 8, in inserting his hand into a mole's 

 hole had been bitten by a Ufwafwa (' Death-Death,' i.e., Puff 

 Adder). I set off in all haste on my bicycle. An accident obliged 

 me to leave the road when half-way, and, to complete the series 

 of mishaps, I went to a village with a similar name, a good 

 half-hour distant from that where the patient lived. The result 

 was that by the time I arrived I should say that about two hours 

 had elapsed since the child had been bitten. The snake had been 

 killed, and was, indeed, a puff adder. It had bitten the child in the 

 middle finger of the right hand, and half the arm was greatly 

 swollen, and as hard as stone. As quickly as possible I gave 

 an injection of 10 c.c. of antivenomous serum, and then vainly 

 endeavoured to make the wound bleed. In a very short time the 

 serum was absorbed. On the following morning the child was still 

 ill, with wild eyes resembhng those of an epileptic. He yawned 

 continually, and did not seem altogether conscious ; the inflamma- 

 tion, however, had greatly diminished. A few days later recovery 

 was complete, but a large abscess formed on the forearm, and the 

 hand became necrosed. I was obliged to amputate all the pha- 

 langes. The natives said the child was going to die during the 

 night. In my opinion the serum saved the child's life, and recovery 

 would have been more rapid had I not been so late in arriving." 



