EFFECTS OF SNAKE VENOM. 363 



swallow snake venom under the mistaken belief that it renders 

 them immune to snake bite. 



The South African Bushmen poisoned their arrow heads with 

 snake venom for the purpose of killing animals for food. They 

 were in the habit of eating the animals killed in this way without 

 previously draining out any of the blood, and only partially 

 cooking the flesh, often eating it practically raw. All they did 

 was to cut out and throw away the discoloured flesh around the 

 site of the poisoned arrow wound. 



The blood of an animal which has died of snake bite will kill 

 if introduced into the blood of another. Dr. Fayrer transmitted 

 the venom through three animals with fatal results. That is, 

 he injected venom into one animal. Then he inoculated the 

 second animal with the blood of the first. When this second 

 animal was dying he took some of its blood and injected it into a 

 third animal. All three died. 



When introduced into the eye, snake venom causes intense 

 smarting and acute inflammation, often so severe as to cause the 

 victim, if human, to faint with pain. Blindness ensues, but if 

 the eyes are promptly and efficiently treated, sight is ultimately 

 restored. The venom of Adders acts with greater intensity on 

 the eyes than Cobra venom. The effect of the latter, however, is 

 severe enough. 



Venom acts on cold-blooded animals, viz. reptiles, but not 

 so rapidly as is the case with warm-blooded creatures. Birds 

 and small animals usually die within a few minutes of being 

 bitten by a very venomous snake. 



Dr. Fayrer says the venom of adult deadly snakes does not 

 affect each other. This is only sometimes so, not by any means 

 always. Experiments in proof of this are detailed elsewhere in 

 this book. 



On several occasions I have removed the poison glands from 

 dead Cobras and Puff Adders after the bodies had become 

 slightly stale, sufficiently so to give off a disagreeable odour. 

 The venom was squeezed out of the glands and injected into 

 fowls under the skin of the thigh and wing. No poisonous 

 symptoms followed. I concluded from these experiments that 

 after the death of a snake the venom rapidly deteriorates and 

 entirely loses its toxic properties when decomposition of the flesh 

 of the reptile begins. 



