TREATMENT OF SNAKE BITE 289 



Winter Blyth ' showed that cobra venom becomes innocuous when it is 

 mixed with potassium permanganate in vitro. 



Couty and Lacerda, 2 in 1881, made a number of experiments upon the 

 effect of permanganate of potash on snake venom (Lachesis) and found that 

 this substance not only destroyed the lethal action of the venom when mixed 

 with it in vitro, but also preserved life when a 1 per cent solution was injected 

 into the tissues close to the place where the venom had been previously in- 

 jected, and also where venom and antidote were injected directly into the 

 vein. 



Vincent Richards, also in 1881, similarly showed that the cobra venom is 

 destroyed by permanganate of potash in vitro, so that death does not follow 

 the injection of the mixture. But after the development of the poisoning 

 symptoms no beneficial effect was to be had from the injection of this 

 chemical. 



In 1902 Brunton devised an instrument by which the bitten person him- 

 self can at once apply potassium permanganate to the place of snake bite. 

 The instrument consists of two principal parts, one for opening the wound 

 by incision and the other for holding a quantity of crystals of potassium 

 permanganate. The first is a fine steel lancet and the latter is a hollow 

 excavation in the opposite end of the wooden handle, to which the lancet is 

 also fastened at the other end. Each of these main parts of the instrument 

 is covered with a wooden cap. 



Fig. 16. 



In an emergency the limb on which the bite occurred must be ligated with 

 a tight bandage and the puncture of the fangs must be at once opened by free 

 incision, when the crystals of the permanganate are to be applied — a few 

 drops of saliva for facilitating its solution may be used — to the wound, and 

 rubbed in it thoroughly. 



Experimental Merit of the Treatment : 3 



Leonard Rogers made a series of very instructive and thorough experi- 

 ments to determine if potassium permanganate can nullify the toxic effects 

 of various kinds of snake venom on certain animals and thus prevent death. 

 A ligature was simultaneously applied to the bitten limb. Rogers sum- 

 marizes his results as follows: The venoms tested were these of Cobra, Daboia 

 russellii, Crotalus terrificus (the pit viper), African puff adder, Bungarus 



1 Winter Blyth. The poison of cobra. The Analyst, 1877, 204, 



2 Couty and Lacerda. C. R. Acad. Sci., 1881, XCII, 465. Also, Lacerda. C. R. Acad. Sci., 1882, 



XCIII, 466: O veneno ophidico e seus antidotos. Rio de Janeiro, 1881. 

 * Brunton, Fayrer, and Rogers. Experiments on a method of preventing death from snake bite capable 

 of common and easy practical application. Proc. Roy. Soc, London, 1904, LXXIII, 323. 



