DESTROY THE VENOM AT ONCE. 305 



skin, should be cleaned and dressed with a germ-killing substance, 

 such as boracic acid. 



When a snake drives its fangs through the skin, the venom 

 is discharged into the watery lymph and amongst a close net- 

 work of lymphatic tubes, the absorbent mouths of which are 

 intensely irritated by the venom. Being thus stimulated, they 

 and the small blood vessels rapidly suck it up. In a 

 marvellously short space of time it is distributed throughout 

 the body by means of the blood vessels. Not being convertible 

 into a gas by the lungs the latter have little or no power of ex- 

 pelling it with the exhaled breath, as is the case with ordinary 

 tissue waste matters. 



Destroy the Venom at once. 



Now, it is apparent if the spot where the fangs entered is 

 well scarified and allowed to bleed freely or sucked, the venom, 

 or at least some of it, will be washed out or drawn out by suction. 

 Permanganate of potash kills snake venom, if brought into actual 

 contact with it, so it is obvious that if this salt is rubbed into the 

 scarified part within five minutes of being bitten by a snake, 

 more or less of the venom will be destroyed in the wound. This 

 method naturally does not always save the bitten person's life, 

 because, when a large and very venomous snake, such as a Cobra, 

 inflicts a full and complete bite, enough venom is sucked up 

 within a minute or two into the body to cause death, although 

 the permanganate might have destroyed two-thirds or even 

 more of the quantity injected by the snake. 



It is unwise to rely entirely upon permanganate of potash 

 in the treatment of snake bite, even if it be applied within a 

 minute of being bitten, especially if the snake be a Cobra, 

 Mamba, or large Puff Adder. The victim should be injected 

 with Anti-venom Serum, which men of science now prepare 

 for the treatment of snake bite, and which is fully discussed 

 elsewhere in this book. 



A series of experiments which I conducted during the past 

 ten years all go to show that none of the popular South African 

 " cures " retard death in the least when applied in cases of snake 

 bite on animals. 



