USES IX SNAKE BITE. 385 



for such a length of time might be impossible. In such a case 

 as this, the obvious plan of treatment would be, of course, to 

 remove the poison along with the blood in wliich it was circu- 

 lating, instead of waiting for its slow removal by the emunc- 

 tories. 



Now, it appears to me that this is the case in poisoning by 

 the bites of snakes, and this the treatment which must be 

 adopted. AYe must combine artificial respiration with trans- 

 fusion. The experiments of Dr. Fayrer show that the poison of 

 the cobra is circulating in the blood of an animal which has 

 been bitten by it; for this blood will kill another animal Avhen 

 injected into it. From those of Fontana, it would seem that 

 the poison of the viper is eliminated from the body ; for pigeons 

 did not die if a ligature were placed on the bitten limb, above 

 the place where the wound had been inflicted, and removed 

 after some time. Fontana thought that the poison had been 

 destroyed in the limb, but was evidently puzzled about it, for 

 some of his other experiments had shown him that mixing it 

 with blood did not destroy its virulence. He imagined that he 

 had completely stopped the circulation in the injured limb ; but 

 it is more probable that he had only partially done so, and that 

 the poison was thus slowly absorbed from the limb, and, being 

 excreted equally quickly, did the creature no harm. If this expla- 

 nation of his experiments be not correct, it is difficult to under- 

 stand wh}'- poisoning did not occur when the ligature was removed, 

 as Waterton found to be the case in some similar experiments 

 which he had tried with woorara. So long as the ligature was 

 tight, the woorara remained confined to the limb ; but as soon as 

 the circulation was allowed to go on, the poison was absorbed^ 

 and the animal died. This may seem to be in direct contradic- 

 tion to what I have already said regarding the probable com- 

 parative slowness of the excretion of snake-poison to that of 

 woorara ; but it must be observed that Fontana waited a much^ 

 longer time before he untied the ligatures than Waterton did, 

 and would thus allow a much larger proportion of the poison 

 to be excreted. It must be noted also that the poison with 

 which he experimented was that of the viper and not of the 

 cobra, and there may be considerable differences in the facility 



2 



