548 SNAKES. 



ensuing years, also in his paper ' On the Condition of the 

 Blood from Snake-bite,' 1867. 



. In India similar kinds of experiments were not attended 

 with success ; leading to the conclusion that the Indian snakes 

 were more deadly than those in Australia. Climate, latitude, 

 season, and many other circumstances affect the virulence of 

 snakes, as we may here repeat. The ' Brown ' or ' Tiger 

 snake ' {HoplocepJialtis ciirtiLs), the ' Black snake ' {Pseudechis 

 porpJiyriactis)^ Hoplocephaliis stipcrbus, and some other of the 

 larger venomous kinds within the tropics are thought to be 

 equal in virulence to the Indian ones of the same bulk in the 

 same season. Many of them erect themselves and distend 

 their necks like the najas. 



And now for a few words about the most popular and 

 perhaps most attainable of all remedies — alcohol ! No 

 wonder the backwoodsman resorts to this, which without any 

 chopping off of fingers or toes, or personal pyrotechnics, or 

 other local tortures, deadens his sensibilities, renders him un- 

 conscious of suffering, and sends him into a happy oblivious- 

 ness of danger. It is not a refined mode of treatment, nor 

 one that presents many opportunities of exhibiting profes- 

 sional skill ; and it is no doubt somewhat derogatory to admit 

 that to become dead drunk is an effective victory against 

 snake venom ! Other old and inelegant remedies we hear of 

 as practised by the Bushmen of South Africa, and savage tribes 

 elsewhere, but revolting in the hands of refined practitioners. 

 Deference to science and loyalty to the profession de- 

 mand some more elaborate means. Yet the efftcacy of whisky 

 or brandy is admitted by all, and the pioneer who has not a 

 doctor within miles of him has his demijohn of whisky at hand. 



