158 



in India. As regards the Indian population, our philan- 

 thropy might, as I have before said, find better objects 

 than the mortality from a cause of which the sufferers do 

 not complain and which is practically unpreventible. 



It may be asked, however, what is to be done in case a 

 servant is bitten by a venomous snake. Well, supposing 

 this very rare accident to occur (for the bitten man's own 

 statement is not often worth much) the circulation of the 

 part bitten should be isolated as much as possible by a 

 string or twisted handkerchief tightly tied round it, the 

 wound laid open and vigorously sucked ; if it can be 

 cauterized at once either by a hot iron, the explosion of 

 gunpowder, a strong acid or alkali, this may be done — but 

 it is no use inflicting this painful treatment unless it can 

 be done immediately — which is practically all but impos- 

 sible. After this, let the patient take his chance, as it 

 is quite possible that the snake was not a venomous one or 

 that the patient did not receive a fatal dose of poison. He 

 may be perfectly certain that it was a cobra, or a kati 

 viriyan or a maridaU, &c., &c., &c., and yet it may have 

 been only a dhaman or the harmless little Lycodon aulicus. 

 I never met an Indian who didn't declare the latter snake 

 to be very deadly ; besides it is often very like Bungarus 

 arcuatus in coloration, and the length of its anterior 

 maxillary teeth might easily lead Europeans examining it 

 to believe that it possessed poison-fangs. From its habit 

 of lurking about dark places, it is often disturbed by 

 servants entering godowns and bath-rooms ; the man treads 

 on it, feels that he is bitten, sees this snake scuttling away, 

 and then rushes out half-dead with fright, crying out that 

 he was bitten by a venomous snake. Every symptom of 

 really venomous snake-bite may come on ; and in weak or 

 nervous subjects death might possibly occur. But in the 

 large majority of such cases remedies are applied, the patient 

 recovers, and the antidote used is in high repute. 



