THEIE NATURE AND EFFECTS. 145 



flammation produced by snake-poison may lead one to 

 excise the bitten part, even when sufficient poison has 

 not been injected to kill. This may be true, but the 

 injury inflicted is trifling compared with the fearful 

 risk that would be run by leaving the patient alone. 

 Summed up shortly, the position is this : — If we do 

 not consult the condition of the parts we shall be 

 absolutely without any guide at all, and must act by 

 guess-work, or wait till the symptoms have developed, 

 when interference is useless. But by consulting the 

 appearance of the parts we shall obtain information, 

 the accuracy of which will be in proportion to our 

 knowledge of the subject. 



In those rare cases where the victim is bitten on the 

 body, all that can be done is to make, as quickly as 

 possible, a complete excision of the part. It is singular 

 that out of the few cases that do occur on the trunk, 

 in a large proportion of them the wound is on a 

 place where complete excision can be performed with 

 ease, namely, the ear, the breast, and the scrotum. The 

 reason appears to be that a snake has some difficulty in 

 seizing hold of any part of the body which presents a 

 smooth flat surface, but that any pendulous part can be 

 grasped without difficulty by the reptile. This is a fuct 

 much in the favour of this class of victims. 



That these proceedings are of the greatest practical 

 use, syid are quite sufficient under ordinary circumstances, 

 the following cases will prove. 



10 



