XIII SNAKE-POISON 59 1 



owing to the breaking down of the red blood-corpuscles, most so 

 with vipers, less with Australian snakes, least so with the Cobra. 

 The Cobra venom is supposed to extinguish the functions of the 

 various nerve-centres of the cerebro-spinal system, the paralysa- 

 tion extending from below upwards, and it has a special affinity 

 for the respiratory centre. The toxicity or relative strength of 

 the Cobra venom has been calculated to be sixteen times that 

 of the European Viper. Snakes can poison each other, even 

 those of the same kind. 



" Treatment. — Apply a ligature above, not on the top of the 

 situation of the bite ; twist the string tightly with a stick. 

 Then make a free incision into the wound. Sucking out is 

 dangerous ! Then bandage the limb downwards, progressing 

 towards the wound ; repeat this several times. Direct applica- 

 tion into the widened wound of calcium hypochlorite, i.e. 

 bleaching powder, is very good, or of a 1 per cent solution of 

 permanganate of potash, or Condy's fluid. Amputation of the 

 finger is the best remedy of all if a large snake has bitten it. 

 Do not keep the ligature longer than half an hour. Then let 

 the circulation return, and apply the ligature again. In any 

 case, do not keep the ligature on for more than one hour for fear 

 of gangrene. 



" Internal remedies. — The administration of enormous doses of 

 alcohol is to be condemned strongly ; small stimulating doses are 

 good, but stimulation can be more effectively produced by 

 ammonia or strychnia. Hypodermic injection of strychnine, in 

 some cases as much as one to two grains (but not into a vein !) 

 has in some cases had good results ; but injection of ammonia, 

 instead of doing any good, has disastrous sloughing results. 

 There is only one fairly reliable treatment, that by serum thera- 

 peutics, the injection of considerable quantities of serum of 

 animals which have been partially immunised by repeated doses 

 of snake-venom. Unfortunately this treatment will not often be 

 available." 



Several well-known Mammals and Birds are immune by 

 nature against snake-venom, but most of them avoid being bitten. 

 Some birds induce the snake to strike and bite frequently into 

 their spread-out wings. Such more or less common creatures are 

 the Mongoose, the Hedgehog, and the Pig, the Secretary bird, the 

 Honey Buzzard, the Stork and probably other snake- eaters. 



