SNAKE-BITE. In British InClia, in the six years 1875-1880, 1,073,546 snakes were destroyed, over 103,000 persons died from snake-bite, and Rs. 6818 were given in rewards for killing above a. million of snakes. For our knowledge of the nature and effects of snake -poisons we are indebted to Surgeon - General Shortt ; to Sir Joseph Fayrer's work on the Thanatophidia ; to a Report on Indian and Australian snake poisoning by Drs. Ewart, Richards, and Mackenzie ; to the investigations of Drs. Halford and Weir Mitchell in Australia and America; and to a volume by Dr. Wall of the Indian army.
Dr. Halford, of Melbourne, advanced the theory that in snake - poisoning oerrninal matter was thrown into the body, togaher with the virus, which rapidly developed and multiplied, the process going on at the expense of the oxygen ; and he described 80MC cells in the blood which ho believed were evidence of his proposition. These cells, however, were afterwards proved t,o be tho ordinary white blood corpuscles. Sir Joseph Fayrer finding that tho blood after death from the bite of the viper (daboia) remained fluid, while after the bibs of the cobra it quickly coagulated, supposed that death is due t,o some important chan,ges in the blood. Dr. Wall is unable to accept either of these theories, and, while admitting a serious change in the condi tion of the blood in viperine, but not in cobra, poisoning, he attributes the Ca1180 of death to dis turbance of the nervous system,—in the case of cobra poisoning to paralysis of the respiratory function, and in vipoine poisoning to convulsions due to the direct action of the poison on the nervous system, and not to carbonic acid poisoning. from failure of the respiration.
Surgeon-General John Shortt, a medical officer of the Madras army, recommends liquor potassre internally for the cure of persons wounded by poisonous snakes. Surgeon-General Sir Joseph Fayrer of the Bengal army recommends liquor ammonite. All stimulants are useful,—spirits, and the essential oils of cinnamon, peppermint, etc. Dr. Wall is urgent for the entire removal by the knife of all the poisoned structure before the venom can be absorbed iuto the system. This, however, requires the skilled eye and hand of the surgeon, and time is not given, because the whole blood of the body passes through the heart in three minutes. The virus of snakes does not
owe its peculiar properties to germs, but it is a perfectly structureless plasma, whose physiolo gical action is little influenced by such materials as carbolic acid, and it retains ' its poisonous properties after being heated for an hour to a temperature of 224.6° Fahr., a temperature which it is hardly probable organic germs could survive. On the other hand, the disinfectants, which act by destroying organic compounds, such as chlorine, sulphurous acid, and chloride of zinc, have a marked effect in weakening the activity of the virus; while the permanganate of potash— better known by the name of Condy's fluid— completely suspends it by parting with its oxygen and decomposing its albuminous constituents.
Dr. 1Vall found no benefit accrue froin the injection of annnonia or the permanganate of potash into the blood, nor does he speak en couragingly of giving large quantities of alcohol to the extent of producing intoxication.
As about 90 per cent. of snake-bites occur on the arms Red legs, great importance is attached to the immediate appliattion of a ligature to the limb above the seat of the wound. Dr. Wall thinks that the common mode of tying a piece of string or calico round the limb often fails to stop the circulation, and recommends As a substitute a piece of india-rubber bandage, similar to Es march's, employed by surgeons for bloodless operations.
The mungonse is tho natural enemy of the snake, and although it seems to bo as tameable as the cat, its depredations on the poultry yard will always prevent it taking the place of the cat in the Indian household. Mothers also dread lest their sleeping children be attacked.
Aristotle tells us that serpents may be driven away from a house by the 'quell of rue. Pliny Rays that the root of the holni-orik is an enemy to scorpions, and that of the ash to serpents, which, moreover, will not retire under fern. Serpents may be driven away by the burning of hair or stag's horn, or the sawdust of the cedar, or a few drops of galbanum, preen ivy, or juniper ; and persons rubbed with juniper seeds are said tss be secure from hurt by serpents. See Serpents.