Popular Science Monthly 



575 



With a quick move- 

 ment place the cane 

 across the neck of the 

 snake just behind 

 the head, then grasp 

 him in the spot 

 where the cane rests 



are captured in 

 order to secure 

 their venom for 

 the prepara- 

 tion of a n t i - 

 venom snake 



irum. Thisse- 



im, if injected 



ito a person who 

 las been bitten by 



snake, will save 

 lis life. The neces- 

 sity of the prepara- 

 tion seems remote to 

 us who Hve where ven- 

 omous snakes are 

 comparatively rare. 

 But in some parts of the world snakes do 

 much to keep the death rate high. In the 

 Indian Peninsula, for example, the Cobra, 

 ihe Krait and a few other venomous snakes 

 cause the death of 25,000 persons ever\- 

 year. Fatalities from snake bites are 

 numerous in Burma, Indo-China, Australia, 

 the Dutch Indies, Africa, the West Indies 

 and Tropical America. 



Treatment for snake-bite consists in 

 immediately making a tourniquet some 

 distance above the wound to prevent the 

 blood from carrying the venom through 

 the system, then making deep incisions in 

 the wound with a razor or a sharp knife to 

 permit it to bleed freely. Permanganate 

 of potash should be sprinkled into the 

 wound and then anti-venom snake serum 

 should be administered. If these pre- 

 cautions are taken quickly the danger of 



The ustial number of fangs is two, but some- 

 times a third one grows in before it is due 



When held in this 

 way the snake is 

 perfectly harmless. 

 Care should always 

 be taken not to give 

 it a chance to coil 

 around anything 



the bite prov- 

 ing fatal is 

 greatly les- 

 sened. 



Ordinarily, 

 however, even 

 the most ven- 

 omous of snakes 

 will not harm a 

 person unless it 

 happens to be struck, 

 stepped on or other- 

 wise annoyed or 

 alarmed. In this coun- 

 try- snake-bite fatalities 

 are rare. 



Potash from Seaweed — An Industry 

 in the Making 



AX. ambitious project to obtain potash 

 . from seaweed in the Sargasso Sea, in 

 the North Atlantic Ocean, is planned by 

 W. S. Warner, of Tampa, Florida. He 

 intends to build a special vessel of rein- 

 forced concrete and equip it with machinery 

 for hoisting the seaweed from the ocean and 

 reducing it to ashes. After running the 

 seaweed through three successive sets of 

 heavy rolls to remove the water, it will be 

 passed through rotary drying kilns, burned, 

 and the ashes, in which the potash content 

 is concentrated, stored in the hold of the 

 vessel. Mr. Warner plans to install an 

 equipment capable of producing two hun- 

 dred tons of ashes per day. The Sargasso 

 Sea is literally covered with seaweed. 



