128 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



diagnostic sign, and require very careful looking for. 

 If, on the other hand, the animal be strong enough 

 to withstand the venom, or the dose injected be not 

 so large, symptoms of local blood-poisoning show 

 themselves very quickly. The part becomes swollen 

 and painful and inflamed, and may develop abscesses. 

 This active inflammation reaches its height in two or 

 three days, and then gradually subsides, the animal 

 taking several weeks before it quite recovers. 



Effect on human beings. — Cases of adder- bite 

 rarely terminate fatally in adult persons. F. G. Aflalo 

 mentions, however, that Dr Stradling had records of 

 five fatal cases.^ The same author states that " on 

 the whole, men and monkeys succumb more fre- 

 quently to snake-bite than other animals." In locali- 

 ties where the small red viper is found, its bite is 

 supposed to be particularly noxious. The effect on 

 man varies with the healthy condition or otherwise 

 of the person bitten ; but this is the case in any 

 other kind of wound. Most of all does the result 

 depend on the actual amount of venom injected into 

 the circulation. The bite nearly always takes place 

 before the person is aware of the proximity of the 

 adder — either through treading on it or in picking up 

 something on the ground, not seeing the adder there ; 

 or in some such accidental manner. Very rarely is 

 it the result of a deliberate attack on the part of 

 the reptile, which is doing its best to elude notice. 



1 Natural History (Vertel .rates) of the British Islands, p. 306. 



