478 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



liquid penetrate into the tissues to the same depth as the venom; the 

 injection must, therefore, be more or less deep according to the size of 

 the snake. To make absolutely sure, three or four more similar injec- 

 tions are made a little distance around the point bitten. 



If, at the time of treatment, the swelling has already obtained a 

 certain size it may be necessary to make injections into various points 

 of the tumor. After the injections the part is pressed gently with the 

 hand so as to distribute the injected fluid in all directions and facili- 

 tate its mixture with the venom. Next, some punctures are made with 

 the point of a knife. Usually a rather large quantity of yellowish 

 serosity flows from the wound, mixed with a part of the injected fluid. 

 In order to facilitate this discharge the swelling should be kneeded 

 repeatedly with the hand. Then the surface should be washed with 

 the permanganate or the chromic solution, and a small piece of lint 

 soaked with one or the other of these liquids applied. If, after some 

 time, the swelling continues to grow, additional injections into the i)arts 

 must be made as well as punctures. With this treatment the tissues 

 preserve their vitalitj^; the skin does not turn black but remains red. 

 The microbes are destroyed by the injected agents, which act as anti- 

 septics as wgI\ as antidotes. 



For the strychnine treatment the Australians have also constructed 

 a pocket case containing patent poison sucker, hypodermic syringe 

 with two needles, glass mortar and pestle, two tubes of strjxhnine 

 tabloids, and directions for use. The manufacturer is L. Bruck, 13 

 Castlereagh street, Sydney, and it sells for £1. 



It seems as if a combination of these two cases wo«uld be the thing 

 for this country, and ought to be of great service not only to physicians 

 residing in those parts ot the States in which poisoning by snake bite 

 is not unusual, but also to such persons who.from their occupation are 

 particularly exposed to dangers of this kind. 



PREVENTIVE INOCULATION — THE IMMUNITY OF SNAKES AGAINST 



SNAKE VENOM. 



It has been noticed from time to time by various experimenters that 

 animals which had recovered from snake-venom injections showed a 

 certain amount of resistance afterwards, so as to make then) useless 

 for future experiments. It naturally suggested itself to investigators 

 that by continued inoculation of small doses of the pure or modified 

 venom, immunity from the poison, even in otherwise fatal doses, might 

 finally be obtained. 



Such a preventive inoculation, although of doubtful use in this 

 country, with its comparatively small number of fatalities from snake 

 bites, might be highly beneficial in India and Australia, or to travelers 

 or others in tropical countries, who might be specially exposed to such 

 dangers. 



As early as 1887 Prof. Henry Sewall, of the University of Michigan, 



I 



