2 TREATMENT OF SNAKE POISONING. 



and muscular exhaustion make their appearance, the emotional excitement 

 becomes increased, and, at an early period, the feeling is one of despair. 

 The face is pallid, and covered with drops of perspiration ; pupils dilated ; 

 pulse quickened ; there is loss of appetite, nausea or vomiting. General 

 muscular paralysis eventually supervenes ; there is lethargy and drowsi- 

 ness, ending in unconsciousness, accompanied or followed by involuntary 

 evacuations, which are sometimes tinged with blood. The breathing 

 becomes slow, laboured and shallow ; pupils widely dilated. The body 

 becomes bathed in cold, clammy perspiration ; the pulse remains full, 

 quick and compressible. The respiration is gradually stopped, and death 

 is ushered in by convulsions, or convulsive twitchrngs of the muscles of 

 the extremities and face. The pulse beats a few minutes (from three to 

 four) after all breathing has ceased. 



In some cases, where a person has been bitten by an exhausted snake, 

 or by one whose aggregate supply of poison is small, as is the case in the 

 tiger snake of Australia, or by a vigorous cobra, from which, owing to 

 some cause or other, only a minute quantity of poison has been injected ; 

 or where a person has been greatly protected against the absorption of 

 the poison by the early application of the ligature, the above symptoms 

 may be present only in a modified degree. Recovery from the general 

 symptoms may take place. The consequences in the part infected may 

 cause much trouble ; but these are to be dealt with by the surgeon on 

 general principles. 



Treatment. 



1. A. By non-professional persons. — Whenever a person has been 

 bitten by a poisonous reptile, issue orders at once for the attendance of 

 a medical practitioner. 



2. Pending his arrival, if the bite has been inflicted in the upper or 

 lower extremities, promptly arrest absorption of the poison by immedi- 

 ately applying a strong cord very tightly round the limb, about a couple 

 of inches above the bitten part, and two or more cords, from four or six 

 inches apart, twisted as tightly as possible, higher up the limb. Thus, if 

 a finger be bitten at the tip, the first ligature may be applied to the base of 

 the digit, the second to the wrist, and the third to the middle of the fore- 

 arm ; in like manner, if the end of a toe be bitten, the first cord should be 

 secured round the base of the toe ; the second round the instep, and the 



