THE 
POISONOUS SNAKES OF INDIA. 
SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT OF SNAKE POISONING. 
Local.—When a person is effectively bitten by a poisonous snake, he 
feels a stinging sensation in the part penetrated. This is soon followed 
by pain, at first of a dull, aching, and subsequently, of a lancinating and 
piercing, character. The ultimate and rather rapid effect is numbness ter- 
minating in local paralysis of sensation. There may also be slight swelling, 
In poisoning by the cobra, daboia, and other terrestrial snakes, there will 
usually be found the marks or points, sometimes indicated by a small 
film of clotted blood, where the two fangs have entered half an inch or 
more apart. Or, as in the case of a finger being bitten, there may only 
be one point of penetration, the other fang having missed altogether. 
At a later period the part assumes a leaden or livid hue, due in great 
part to the effusion of blood beneath the skin (ecchymosis). When 
the bite has been inflicted by a salt-water snake, the fang-marks are 
more difficult to distinguish; because the fangs are not much larger 
than the fish-like teeth situated immediately behind them. There may, 
further, be marks or scratches of some of the teeth as well as of the fangs. 
As the poison gains access to the blood, the general symptoms affecting 
the whole nervous organisation soon divert attention from, and eclipse, 
the local indications. Unless the ligature has been applied at once or 
very soon after an effective bite these very soon make their appearance. 
General.—Very soon after an effective bite, where the ligature has 
been delayed or not applied at all, the poison is absorbed into the blood, 
and makes its presence felt upon the great nerve-centres of the cord and 
medulla. The patient is extremely restless and excited. His alarm 
amounts to horror, intensified by a deeply-rooted conviction of the utter 
hopelessness of his case, As the first signs of nervous depression, languor 
B 
