138 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



any druggist will serve), let it 

 remain in it a good while, and, 

 above all, call your physician at 

 once for further treatment. 



The trouble is, even with better 

 antidotes than now used in the 

 great majority of genuine snake- 

 bite, i. e., in those cases in which 

 the poison fangs had really pene- 

 trated and injected the venom, 

 the victim, unaware, and unpre- 

 pared, hardly ever is in the posi- 

 tion to be treated quick enough 

 to counteract the venom. The 

 best he can do, and instinctively 

 performs, to mitigate the absorp- 

 tion of the venom, is to at once, 



aid, either at work in a field or on 

 a hunting trip, or traveling, pic- 

 nicking, etc., and what a boon in- 

 deed, it would be, had the victim 

 always a positive anti-venom rem- 

 edy with him — and knew how to 

 apply it ! In the majority of fatal 

 cases, medical science teaches that 

 the poison fangs had either pene^ 

 trated very vascular (capillary) 

 places, or struck a large blood 

 vessel direct. How quick then must 

 the antidote be administered in 

 such a case. In all snakebite cases 

 that come to the attention of a 

 physican, quite a lengthy time 

 generally has elapsed after the 



Poison Fangs (Magnified) of Rattle Snake (Wire Inserted in Poison Canal 

 OF One op the Fangs) 



and tighty constrict the fang- 

 wound with a cloth, cord, or band- 

 age cloth above the fang- wound. 

 The trouble is the snake venom is 

 so quickly injected and absorbed 

 as are medicines injected with the 

 hypodermic needle subcutaneous- 

 ly, and therefore, if ever an anti- 

 venom remedy is discovered that 

 will at once neutralize the snake 

 venom, it will depend upon above 

 principles- In the majority of 

 snake poison cases, the victim is 

 injured far off from any medical 



poison was instilled, and still a 

 majority of such cases, especially 

 such that had been at once treated 

 with a tight ligature, recover, 

 depending upon the nature of the 

 case and vitality of the victim 

 and other circumstances. 



Since hunters are not at all 

 times, during the year, roaming 

 around the fields and pastures 

 an-ir more — ^complying with the 

 strict game laws — and killing any 

 venomous reptile encountered on 

 such occasions, the dangerous spe- 



,..i.* 



