DESTROY THE VENOM AT ONCE. 305 
skin, should be cleaned and dressed with a germ-killing substance, 
such as boracic acid. 
When a snake drives its fangs through the skin, the venom 
is discharged into the watery lymph and amongst a close net- 
work of lymphatic tubes, the absorbent mouths of which are 
intensely irritated by the venom. Being thus stimulated, they 
and the small blood vessels rapidly suck it up. In a 
marvellously short space of time it is distributed throughout 
the body by means of the blood vessels. Not being convertible 
into a gas by the lungs the latter have little or no power of ex- 
pelling it with the exhaled breath, as is the case with ordinary 
tissue waste matters. 
DESTROY THE VENOM AT ONCE. 
Now, it is apparent if the spot where the fangs entered is 
well scarified and allowed to bleed freely or sucked, the venom, 
or at least some of it, will be washed out or drawn out by suction. 
Permanganate of potash kills snake venom, if brought into actual 
contact with it, so, it is obvious that if this salt is rubbed into the 
scarified part within five minutes of being bitten by a snake, 
more or less of the venom will be destroyed in the wound. This 
method naturally does not always save the bitten person’s life, 
because, when a large and very venomous snake, such as a Cobra, 
inflicts a full and complete bite, enough venom is sucked up 
within a minute or two into the body, to cause death, although 
the permanganate might have destroyed two-thirds or even 
more of the quantity injected by the snake. 
It is unwise to rely entirely upon permanganate of potash 
in the treatment of snake bite, even if it be applied within a 
minute of being bitten, especially if the snake be a Cobra, 
Mamba, or large Puff Adder. The victim should be injected 
with Anti-venine Serum, which men of science now prepare 
for the treatment of snake bite, and which is fully discussed 
elsewhere in this book. . 
A series of experiments which I conducted during the past 
ten years all go to show that none of the popular South African 
“cures ”’ retard death in the least when applied in cases of snake 
bite on animals. 
x 
