1 
Lo 
8 BRITISH SERPENTS. 
diagnostic sign, and require very careful looking for. 
If, on the other hand, the animal be strong enough 
to withstand the venom, or the dose injected be not 
so large, symptoms of local blood- poisoning show 
themselves very quickly. The part becomes swollen 
and painful and inflamed, and may develop abscesses. 
This active inflammation reaches its height in two or 
three days, and then eradually subsides, the animal 
taking several weeks before it quite recovers. 
Effect on human beings.—Cases of adder- bite 
rarely terminate fatally in adult persons. F. G. Aflalo 
mentions, however, that Dr Stradling had records of 
ita 
five fatal cases! The same author states that “on 
the whole, men and monkeys succumb more fre- 
quently to snake-bite than other animals.” In loeali- 
ties where the small red viper is found, its bite is 
supposed to be particularly noxious. The effect on 
man varies with the healthy condition or otherwise 
of the person bitten; but this is the case in any 
other kind of wound. Most of all does the result 
depend on the actual amount of venom injected into 
the circulation. The bite nearly always takes place 
before the person is aware of the proximity of the 
adder—either through treading on it or in picking up 
something on the ground, not seeing the adder there ; 
or in some such accidental manner, Very rarely is 
it the result of a deliberate attack on the part of 
the reptile, which is doing its best to elude notice. 
1 Natural History (Vertebrates) of the British Islands, p. 306, 
