412 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
Inject the serum slowly but forcibly. Here I would 
warn the operator to see that no air-bubbles or particles of solid 
sediment are injected into the blood, as they might cause serious 
mischief, and even death. It is safest to strain the serum if it 
is to be injected direct into a vein. Draining it through butter 
muslin will do. Remember the syringe should be completely 
filled with serum so as to allow no space for air. Do not inject 
the whole of it. Leave a little in thesyringe. This will prevent 
any chance of air-bubbles being injected. It is well to put a 
piece of butter muslin in the box with the serum so as to be 
ready for use. 
In drawing up the serum into the syringe, pull the piston rod 
slowly. Do not jerk it up rapidly, because air is likely to get in. 
Sometimes the knob of the piston rod does not fit the barrel 
sufficiently tightly to cause a full charge to be sucked up. But 
it usually gets tight enough when a little serum is taken up, as 
the fluid causes it to expand. If it remains unsatisfactory, 
remove the rod and wind a little cotton thread round it to make 
it fit more tightly. 
Of course, the syringe and needle must be scrupulously clean. 
Sometimes a kind of nettle rash appears when the venom has 
been injected, but this need cause no alarm. It will disappear 
in a day or two. 
If the serum be injected direct into a vein in sufficient quantity 
before any symptoms of poisoning have set in, it will neutralize 
the poison and no poisonous symptoms will appear. On the 
other hand, if alarming symptoms of swelling, nausea, clammy 
skin and lethargy have set in before the injection, then at 
least double the usual dosage of serum must be injected. In 
these advanced cases 40 or 50 c.c. of serum should be immediately 
injected. Still a further dose of 25 c.c. should be injected, if 
the symptoms are very grave. Provided sufficient serum has 
been injected, and if the patient’s nervous system is not para- 
lyzed, or his blood damaged beyond recovery, then he should 
begin slowly to mend. From hour to hour he will improve, 
until complete recovery takes place. If there be extensive 
swelling it will slowly disappear. It will in no case subside all 
at once. 
The effect of the anti-venene, when injected in sufficient 
quantity, is to stop the development of any further symptoms of 
