TREATMENT OF SNAKE BITE 901 
sult of small haemorrhages. There may be considerable 
excitement and dread, and dizziness or faintness may be 
followed by drowsiness or torpor. The nerve centers which 
control arterial tension and respiration are profoundly affect- 
ed. There is a great lowering of blood pressure, due to 
vascular dilatation, with abdominal venous congestion. 
Respiration and pulse usually become more rapid. Death 
may result from paralysis of respiration, paralysis of the 
heart, small haemorrhages into important parts of the brain 
or other organs, and probably from other changes, for these 
complex poisons act in many ways. 
Death, however, follows rattlesnake bite in probably 
not more than 10 per cent of all cases, and most of these 
fatal cases are in children. 
Where death does not supervene recovery may be quite 
rapid. Often there is considerable sloughing about the 
wound. Resistance to bacterial invasion is reduced and 
serious infection may follow. 
There is some reason to believe that venom is removed 
from the blood and destroyed in the liver. 
TREATMENT OF SNAKE BITE 
A considerable number of chemical substances will 
destroy venom, but they also destroy and are destroyed by 
the tissues and fluids of the body, which chemically are 
similar to venom, and, therefore, their use is restricted to 
the area immediately about the bite. The ideal method of 
treatment would seem to be with an antitoxic serum. Such 
serum has been prepared and seems to have been of use in 
certain cases, but seldom can be available for use where 
needed. 
From what has been said it may be seen that treatment 
should be directed toward four ends. These are: 
