638 REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS. 
less, and if, after filtration, alcohol be added to the liquid part another 
precipitate will be obtained, containing all its virulent property. The 
material to which its virulence is due is, therefore, not precipitated by 
heat, but is by alcohol, and yet this re-agent does not render it inert, as 
has been shown by injecting the alcoholic precipitate under the skin of 
animals. 
In the treatment of venomous snake-bites it is obvious that any means 
taken to prevent the poison gaining full egress into the system must be 
very serviceable. Thus,if the bitten part be a limb, a ligature above 
the wound will interrupt the circulation and exclude a large portion of 
the venom. For a similar purpose, scarifying or sucking the wound, or 
burning it with caustics maybe of service. However, any such means to 
be available must be used speedily after the injury, and their value 
leseens as we recede from that period. As the venom is supposed to 
operate by depressing the heart and inducing putrefactive changes in 
the blood, muscles, and other parts of the system, it is evident that stimu- 
lants are always indicated, and in fact, alcohol in some of its forms is 
among the best remedies; also bathing the wound in ammonia, and 
ammonia and arsenic internally given, are said to have excellent anti- 
dotal effects. 2 
After all, the danger from serpent bites, though serious, is not so bad 
as is generally believed. Inthe first place, they are of rare occurrence, 
and it is only exceptionally that we know of a person who has met with 
such an accident; and then in the second place, it is exceptional for a 
person bitten by a venomous serpent to die. The rule is for them to get 
well. In Dr. Mitchell’s sixteen cases there were only four deaths, and 
this is a fair average mortality. The danger, of course, varies with the 
amount of poison injected, and the surgical means used to prevent its 
complete passage into the system. ‘The belief that hogs are not injured 
can probably be explained on the ground that the virulent matter is ab- 
sorbed by the adipose tissue and does not enter the circulation. 
The question of the virulence of the venom upon the serpent itself 
has been settled by experiment, and aleo by Dr. Dearing’s* case of a 
Crotalus that accidentally bit himself. The result was the death of the 
snake. Thus we see that the venom exerts its deadly power, not only 
upon cold and warm-blooded vertebrates, but upon the animal which 
produces it. In other words, it isa liquid secreted from the blood, which 
becomes fatal on being introduced back into the very same source. 
Another interesting fact in regard to these animals, to which, I believe, 
* Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. iv, p. 313. 
