THE VENOMS AND THEIR EEMEDIES. 545 



And assuredly the remedies are generally so severe as to 

 be in themselves sufficiently terrifying. * No time for reflec- 

 tion ;' *no mercy must be shown,' declares Sir Joseph Fayrer, 

 in describing the incredible rapidity with which the venom 

 inoculates the blood * in a moment of time.' Where a deep 

 wound has been inflicted by a highly venomous snake on a 

 small animal, death has been known to occur in a few 

 seconds, especially if the bite were on a large vein or an 

 artery. Therefore if the bite be on a limb, to tie a ligature 

 is the first thing to be done. A thong of leather, a tape, a 

 string, a cord, a garment torn in shreds, anything that can 

 be caught up, must at once be tied round the limb. Every 

 instant of delay increases the danger. Incredible force must 

 be used to tighten the ligature, which even with a tourniquet 

 or a stick to twist the cord to the utmost is scarcely sufficient 

 to completely stop the circulation in the fleshy part of a 

 limb. So tight as to cut into the flesh is frequently necessary. 

 In the case of a dog whose hind leg had been bitten, such 

 amazing force was required, in one of Fayrer's experiments, 

 that with the strength of a pair of hands it was almost 

 impossible to tighten the ligature sufficiently to effect 

 complete strangulation. In another of his experiments a 

 chicken had a ligature tightened round its thigh 'with the 

 greatest amount of tension that a man's hand could exert.' 

 The poor chicken (already half dead with terror and pain, 

 as one must conjecture) was then bitten below the ligature 

 by a cobra, but in spite of the thorough strangulation of the 

 limb, the fowl showed signs of poison in twenty-three 

 minutes, and in three-quarters of an hour was dead. These 



two among other cases are cited to show that the mere 



2 M 



