132 THE POISONOUS SXAKES OF INDIA. 



Fayrer himself says "it is almost physically impossible -with .the 

 power of one pair of hands to so tighten a cord round a dog's leg 

 as thoroughly to strangulate the limb." Wall (A. J.) too says : 

 " an ordinary cord or string, or bandage, is nearly useless compared 

 with the India rubber band. I have known fatal absorption take 

 place when a string has been applied so tightly as actually to cut 

 the flesh, and apparently strangxilate the limb completely, causing 

 acute suffering, evidently from the cord not accommodating itself 

 accurately to the form of the member, and thus leaviny a small 

 channel for the circulation." Wall thus indicates the faultiness 

 which, if there is any virtue in ligature at all, lay in Fayrer's 

 technique. My remarks upon ligature above are only intended to 

 apply to the application of a cord oi- inelastic band «hich. as far as 

 my limited experience goes, is the method usually adopted in 

 attempting to arrest the circulation in cases of snake-i^oisoning. 

 In all the cases I have seen treated, or questioned bitten subjects 

 iipon, this form of ligature had been iised. ^line may be a unique 

 •experience, still it is a fact, and as long as our text books continue 

 to advocate ligature without specifying what is intended b}' this 

 term, and refrain to warn the operator of what is kno^^■n to have 

 proved useless in this procedure so long will futile ligature be 

 practised. 



Now Wall (A. J.) tested the use of Esmarch's bandage with very 

 marked results, saj'S : " the India-rubber band is nearly painless, and 

 properly applied is an absolute safeguai-d against further absorption." 

 As far as I can ascertain the elastic band was but twice applied b\' 

 Wall, once in the human subject, and once experimentally in a dog, 

 and in both cases i-ecovery was complete. I do not think these two 

 cases sufficient test of the method, and I am inclined to think 

 therefore that Wall was too sanguine in his opinion. 



My reasons for doubting the value of ligature, as applied even 

 on the lines advocated by Wall are based upon experiments by 

 Fayrer with regard to excision and amputation. 



Excisi0>'. 



In experiment 14 of series lo, a fowl was bitten in the thigh liy 

 a cobra. The part was immediately excised but the bird died in 

 '21 minutes. 



