AMPHIBIA AND REPTILIA OF COLORADO 43 



young children, and even to an adult if the venom is introduced 

 directly into the circulation, which can very seldom happen. Under 

 ordinary circumstances the bite is not apt to be fatal to an adult. 

 Out of a considerable number of cases which have come to our knowl- 

 edge, we have thus far but one report of death in Colorado as a result 

 of snake bite — a four-year-old boy at Marshall, Boulder County — 

 though there may be others. This is said, not with the idea of making 

 people less vigilant in avoiding the reptiles or less prompt in seeking 

 rehef from their bites, but to allay, in a measure, the fear of fatal 

 results and the excitement following a bite, which combine to render 

 wise treatment and recovery more difficult. 



The great works of Mitchell and Reichert on the venom of ser- 

 pents* are not likely to be available to the general reader, but these 

 and many other pubUcations have been summarized by Stejneger.' 

 Men who have studied the subject with great care are quite emphatic 

 and almost unanimous in condemning the practice of using large 

 quantities of alcohol in case of snake bite. Many cases of death 

 following snake bite appear from the symptoms to have been the 

 direct result of alcoholic poisoning, the alcohol being often adminis- 

 tered in such quantities as to produce convulsions, under the mis- 

 taken notion that it is an antidote for the snake venom and that under 

 such circumstances large quantities may be administered with impu- 

 nity. It is not an antidote, and may have just the effect not desired. 

 The strychnia treatment can of course be safely administered only 

 under the watchful eye of a skilled physician. In a sparsely settled 

 community getting a patient to a physician involves delay. In such 

 an emergency, probably Dr. Stejneger's suggestion would meet the 

 approval of most authorities, though they might differ somewhat as 

 to minor details. His suggestion is as follows: 



As for the preliminary treatment before medical assistance can be obtained 

 or rational remedies applied, but little can be added to the old methods employed. 



■ Mitchell, S. Weir, "Researches upon the Venom of the Rattlesnake," Smithsonian Contributions to 

 Knowledge, Vol. XII, No. 135, i860; Mitchell, S. Weir, and Reichert, Edward T., "Researches upon the 

 Venom of Poisonous Serpents," Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 1886. 



' Stejneger, Leonhard, "The Poisonous Snakes of North America," Ann. Kept. U.S. Nat. Mus. for 

 1893, pp. 337-487, 1895. See especially pp. 457-475 as to the poison; pp. 475-478 as to treatment; pp. 

 478-480 as to preventive inoculation, immunity and serum treatment. 



