88 Mr. Home's Account of the Case of a Man , &c. 
place, and where the poison produces a local injury of sufficient 
extent, the patient also dies, while all slighter cases recover. 
The effect of the poison on the constitution is so immediate, 
and the irritability of the stomach is so great, that there is no 
opportunity of exhibiting medicines till it has fairly taken 
place, and then there is little chance of beneficial effects being 
produced. 
The only rational local treatment to prevent the secondary 
mischief, is making ligatures above the tumefied part, to com- 
press the cellular membrane, and set bounds to the swelling, 
which only spreads in the loose parts under the skin; and 
scarifying freely the parts already swoln, that the effused 
serum may escape, and the matter be discharged, as soon as 
it is formed. Ligatures are employed in America, but with a 
different view, namely, to prevent the poison being absorbed 
into the system. 
