A FACT TO BE REMEMBERED. 389 
EXPERIMENTS. 
When venom was injected direct into the veins of animals, 
death always took. place within a few minutes. The animal 
would often drop dead immediately after the injection. However, 
if the same quantity was injected into the muscles, death did 
not usually occur for hours, sometimes days. 
These experiments conclusively prove the venom is not all 
instantly absorbed, as some writers so positively assert. 
The experiments of Doctor Brunton and other eminent men 
have also demonstrated this to be a fact, for it was found that 
the animals often recovered if the seat of the injection of venom 
was scarified and permanganate of potash applied within five 
or ten minutes after the injection of the venom. 
A Fact TO BE REMEMBERED. 
It must be distinctly understood that permanganate of potash 
is not an antidote. It is of the nature of a “ First Aid Treat- 
ment.” It will destroy any venom it actually comes in contact 
with if rubbed into incisions made over the site of the bite. 
It is absolutely useless unless applied immediately after the bite. 
If the snake’s fangs happen to penetrate a vein and the venom 
be discharged therein, the poison is instantly carried into the 
general circulation, and local applications of permanganate of 
potash would be valueless. This permanganate salt should 
always be carried, so as to be available for first-aid treatment. 
But ‘‘ anti-venene” serum should be in the home of every farmer, 
so that a cure may be available. The permanganate of potash 
should not be relied on too much. It is practically useless as a 
treatment for snake bite in domestic animals, for it is seldom 
an animal is seen to be bitten. The first indication which causes 
suspicion of snake bite is local swelling, trembling, and exhaus- 
tion. If serum be at hand and the animal injected freely with 
it, its life would be saved, even many hours after the infliction 
of the bite. Unless, of course, the damage done to the nerve 
centres and blood is too great to make recovery possible. 
In scarifying the site of the bite the incisions should be made 
freely, because the venom is injected so forcibly, that it often 
spreads out under the skin for about half an inch around the 
site of the fang punctures. Then again, a snake may, when 
