260 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



be done instantly. I am sure the best chance is 

 in tight ligatures, and the free use of the knife. I 

 saw Captain Petit bring a man round who was 

 unconscious and apparently dead. He will tell 

 you what to do. 



I was out shooting last year with Norton. He 

 had started one day early after buffalo, while I was 

 having an easy morning in camp. A woman came 

 running from the village close by for help, crying 

 that her husband had been bitten by a snake. I 

 was on the spot within two or three minutes with 

 lancet, brandy, and antivenine, and found the 

 patient, a fine man of about thirty, seated crossed - 

 legged on the floor of his courtyard. A snake had 

 bitten him as he went out in the early morning. 

 He was rocking to and fro, but I, in my ignorance, 

 could see no bad signs. There was dried blood on 

 the second toe of his left foot ; I therefore cut the 

 toe freely, tied a tight ligature round the ankle, and 

 gave him a subcutaneous injection of antivenine 

 of the right strength in the flesh of his side. I felt 

 the man was saved. But in a few minutes he 

 complained of being dizzy, and was very sick ; he 

 had terrible gasping for breath. I gave him brandy, 

 but the dizziness increased. I tried to get him to 

 lie down on his bed, but he seemed to have a 

 horror of it. He kept saying, " Leave me on the 

 earth " a superstition, I suppose. I then tried to 

 give him an intravenous injection, but had great 

 trouble in finding a vein. As I searched he lay 

 down and was dead in my hands before I knew 

 it. I imagine that I had not been there a quarter 

 of an hour. How long before the man had been 

 bitten, or by what manner of snake, I do not know ; 

 the blood on his toe was clotted and hard, so I 



