
118 AUSTRALIAN ZOOLOGY. 
The patients generally feel drowsy and fall asleep, but are easily 
aroused and sometimes awake spontaneously. 
Tnoculation.—Professor Halford (Victoria), writing of his ex- 
periments in conjunction with Shires, says :—‘t This man apparently 
cared nothing for venomous snakes ; he would put his bare arm and 
hand into a box containing 50 snakes and pull out one, just asa 
fisherman would an eel from a bag of eels. One morning before 
commencing experiments with his antidote on 20 dogs, he said he 
would try an experiment on himself with some snakes from Gipps- 
land—venomous without doubt. There were several gentlemen 
present, some of whom are still in Victoria. I tuld him I would 
not permit such a thing; but he insisted. Tc guard against 
deception, I was foolish enongh (I did not think till afterwards how 
foolish) to tell him to pick out a certain tiger snake—one out of 
many that I had received the evening before from Dr, Gummow, of 
Swan Hill. The snake bit him on the left fore-arm, three inches 
above the wrist, and held on. He applied his remedy, and I 
watched him throughout the day, and certainly no symptoms of 
snake-poisoning supervened. Had he died where should 1 have 
been? How could this immunity be accounted foy, for 19 out of 
the 20 dogs died? I was aware that he had been bitten several 
times before this, and once or twice nearly dead. It occurred to 
me, could previous inoculation have saved him? as we know now 
that previous inoculations save, or greatly modify, the effects of 
other organic poisons. This brings me to a remarkable statement 
by Dr. C. J. Martin, which is:—‘A previous injection of small 
doses of black snake venom confers an immunity, so far as intra- 
vascular clotting is concerned, against further injections of the 
venom. ‘This immunity is very speedily produced, but how long it 
may last I am at present not in a position to say.’” 
What to do in a case of snakebite.—Ninety per cent. of the bites 
on human beings are on the limbs. When the injury is thus located, 
tie a ligature tightly above the bitten part—that is, between it and 
the direction of the heart ; for, the bite being superficial, the poison 
unless arrested is conveyed into the circulation. Use a strip of 
clothing rather than waste time in searching for other material. 
The part containing the mark of the fangs should be cut out to the 
depth of a quarter of an inch, if practicable. The wound should be 
frequently sucked by some person having neither sores nor ulcers 
about the mouth If the bite is not on the limbs, a portion of the 
flesh should be pinched up and girt with a ligature. Wash the 
wound with a solution of the chloride of lime; but, in all cases, a 
medical man should be sent for at once, as the remedy, if strych- 
uine, is quite as dangerous as the reptile, unless skilfully handled, - 
The fears of the patient should be allayed as much as possible, so 
that fright may not become an ally of the venom. The symptoms 
seem to be much alike in all cases of snakebite :—At first faintness 
and often slight convulsions, then sickness of the stomach (probably 
a reflex action from the brain), with trembling and weakness in the 
