69 



Snake Bite and Snake Poisoning. 



In reading the reports of snake casualties, which appear from 

 time to time in various publications, I have been forcibly and 

 repeatedly struck with the very incomplete way in which many of 

 these cases are recorded, and also by the fact that in many cases 

 the diagnosis of snake-poisoning (ophitoxcemia) appears to have 

 been quite unjustified. Frequently one or two of the most obvious 

 symptoms in a case are mentioned — not necessarily symptoms of 

 ophitoxcemia at all — to the exclusion of many others which though 

 less obvious are perhaps of greater importance in establishing a 

 diagnosis. It appears to me that the term "snake-bite '" is often 

 used as synonymous with " snake-poisoning," and the mere fact 

 that a man has been bitten by a snake, or is reported as having been 

 bitten by a snake, has been the only justification for considering 

 and recording the case as one of snake-poisoning. Many cases 

 appear to be recorded as snake-poisoning which should have been 

 returned wound punctured, or wound lacerated. 



Now in cases of snake-bite, whether the wounds are inflicted by a 

 harmless or a poisonous species, a certain train of^symptoms follow 

 which are the direct result of fright, and kindred emotions, pain, 

 etc. Some of these are so serious that they end fatally, but 

 whether fatal or not a great many of these cases are wrongly 

 diagnosed, the symptoms due to fright being misinterpreted as the 

 result of snake-poison. 



Complicating Effects of Friglit. 



The gravity of symptoms due to fright does not appear to me 

 to be sufficiently recognised, though there is no doubt in my mind 

 that fatal cases from this cause are abundant, especially among the 

 timid natives of this country. 



To take examples, Payrer records the case of a man who was 

 bitten by a slow loris (Nycticebus tardigradus), a perfectly harmless 

 little creature of the order Primates. Natives believe that the bite 

 of this animal is fatal and this man sharing the conviction of his 

 race, became alarmed, and within five minutes was in a senseless 

 state necessitating 5 or 6 hours of vigorous stimulating measures 

 to restore him. Mr. M. H. Oakes has written to me of a fatality 

 from the bite of a " bis cobra," one of the monitor lizards (probably 



