DR. TH. NEUMANN. 113 



blood, hemorrhage and diarrhea set in, the nerve centres 

 cease to work, breathing becomes difficult, the muscles 

 relax, the skin becomes insensible, blindness, deafness 

 may occur, and during the last stages no pain at all may- 

 be felt. Other snake bites cause the most terrible pain, 

 men moan most pitifully, and dogs howl dismally for 

 hours together until death comes as an ardently longed for 

 deliverer. This is usually brought on by suffocation, 

 as in every case the mechanism of respiration is put 

 out of order; as with cobra poison, the motoric 

 centres sustaining the breathing cease to work, and 

 as after a rattlesnake bite, the lungs are filled with 

 blood that has oozed out through the capillaries, and 

 prevents the proper action of the respiratory organs. 

 If, therefore, artificial breathing can be maintained 

 sufficiently long, recovery may be hoped for. At all 

 events, however, even if death is not the result, long 

 sickness follows, and very often it happens that if a man 

 does overcome the dreadful blow, he must suffer a very 

 long time, maybe to the end of his years, from the con- 

 sequences of a snake bite, and literally his whole life 

 has been poisoned by a single little drop of this terrible 

 liquid. 



The number of antidotes is legion. From- oldest 

 times until nowadays the mineral, vegetable and ani- 

 mal kingdoms have been searched for remedies for the 

 horrible effects of snake bites; unfortunately, however, 

 superstition had a good deal to do with all of them. 

 There are people to-day who are earnest believers in the 

 power of reciting a dozen or two of "Pater Nosters" or 

 "Ave Marias;" and juices of plants, hot olive oil, 

 ammonia, chlorine, arsenic, silver nitrate, nitric acid, and 

 other caustic substances, have been recommended, but 

 until today we must confess that we do not know of any 

 trustworthy remedy. 



There are indeed many chemicals which destroy the 



so 



