The harmless snakes, on the contrary, are usually slender and smooth. The head is elongated and oval or round. The pupil is round. Among these are many kinds thought venomous, the "orange-bellied moccasin," for instance, which is confused with the true moc casin and needlessly killed. Many of the harmless are useful through the fact that they destroy field-vermin, while others, as the black-snake, destroy venom -oils reptiles. (Howard A. Kelly, Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin.) The claim that venomous serpents can always be detected by their broad, flat, lanceolate heads is not to be depended upon, according to Stockwell; but this author also lays stress upon the pit be hind the nostrils and the elongated ver tical pupil observed in other nocturnal creatures. Ile stales that no venomous serpent will ever be found in or on a tree; while most have clubbed, instead of slender, tails. Rattlesnakes prefer, as a rule, the more elevated and stony dis tricts. When other evidence is lacking as to the character of the reptile, it may be pinned to the ground by means of a short-forked stick pressed upon the neck immediately behind the head, when the mouth can be pried open and examined for poison-fangs; commonly, under such circumstances, the fangs will be seen hanging perpendicularly from either side of the forepart of the upper jaw, or they may be directed forward in a horizontal plane, just projecting beneath the upper lip—the position for wounding or strik ing; besides, if the creature is enraged, minute drops mixed of venom and saliva will be seen exuding and dripping from the fangs. If the serpent is quiescent, these fangs are retracted until they lie horizontally along the upper jaw with their points looking backward.
Though rattlesnakes are dangerous, more so in warm than in more temperate regions, the wounds they inflict are not so universally fatal as popular prejudice would lead people to believe. This is dependent on two causes, viz.: season and habits of life. Their maximum virulence is developed during the hot season, or the period of reproduction. But venom ous snakes, with few exceptions, are sluggish, and the poison they possess is given them as a means of securing prey; this poison, consequently, is a powerful paralyzant, and the creature bitten can not get far away from his would-be de vourer. Once a creature is bitten, the major portion of the poison contained in the sacs at the base of the fangs is used up, and it requires hours to reproduce it in any quantity. The second use of the fangs, consequently, does not develop the virulence that obtains to the first; and the third is still less venomous and per haps not at all so, the fluid exuded by the fangs being merely a secretion anal ogous to that developed in the salivary glands• of man. Even after the fangs are removed the creature sometimes develops a new pair with surprising rapidity, the only safeguard being to destroy the bulb at the root of each of these tiny weapons.
The vipers of the far East are more abundantly supplied with venom than the rattlesnakes, and it is more virulent and more quickly renewed.
Two venomous reptiles, beside a form of boa, inhabit the Philippines—one of the former, fortunately, somewhat rare. This latter frequently attains a length of nine or ten feet, and, poisonous reptiles as a class,—there are but three or four exceptions,—is apt to take the offensive and attack man. One should its presence, before donning the same in the morning. This viper may be recog
nized by its club-shaped, or obtusely pointed, tail.
—The symptoms following snake-bite are similar, whatever be the kind of offending reptile, but they vary in intensity according to the quantity of venom injected and the kind of serpent. But slight pain is at first experienced; this gradually increases, however, until it becomes severe. The tissues sur never flee from it, since then his fate is sealed, but, facing the reptile, attack it with a stick or club, and, fortunately, it is easily dispatched by a slight blow on the neck. The other venomous reptile is a small viper, allied to the Tic palunga (or Mussels viper) of India, Ceylon, Su matra, Java, the Malay Peninsula, etc. It is, for the most part, nocturnal in habit, and during the day lies coiled up in some nook beneath thick herbage. It is well to examine boots and clothing for rounding the wound become infiltrated, swelled, and ecchymotic, and in some cases gangrene follows. 'The influence of the poison on the centres now appears, the respiration becoming labored, and cardiac action abnormal: i.e., weak and irregular. Cold sweats, faintness, nau sea, and vomiting simultaneously appear, and the patient may sink in a few hours from cardiac paralysis. When the case passes safely through the first thirty-six or forty-eight hours, the destructive in fluence of the venom upon the proto- I plasm of the blood-corpuscles and tissues manifests itself by more or less violent mental symptoms or exhaustion and coma. In many cases, however, when I the patient is otherwise strong, he slowly recovers. Individuals weakened by dis ease, overwork, or insufficient food; children, and weak women are those in which the prognosis is unfavorable.
— The first step in the I treatment of serpent-bites is to apply a ligature—a tightly-tied and twisted cord or handkerchief—about the bitten limb and above the wound. As the poison ex erts its chief effect upon the brain and nervous centres, as evidenced by drowsi ness, stupor, and failure of heart and respiration, every effort should be made to combat the two former and sustain the ' two latter, which is best done by violent exercise, physically enforced if necessary. Suction has often been resorted to; it affords no danger to the person practic ing, unless the lips be cracked or the mucous membrane of the mouth be abraded in some way. This being done, the part bitten should be excised, using a penknife if nothing else be at hand; two crescentic incisions meeting at the ends and bottoin should be made, and the part allowed to bleed freely. When the skin of the bitten part can be raised be tween the fingers, it may be pinched up and cut out with scissors If the bite is found to be deeper than the skin, a small piece of the deeper tissues may also be removed. Cauterization with a hot iron is also advised, but it is quite as painful and less reliable a means. It may be useful, however, if excising instruments, a scalpel or knife, are not at hand and after suction. A piece of thick wire, a darning needle, etc., may be heated red hot in the flame of a lamp, candle, or of a bundle of matches constantly fed by new ones and its tip is quickly inserted into the wound until every part of it is well burned. This should only be con sidered as a temporary means, however, and the part should be excised as soon as at all possible, since absorption is ex ceedingly rapid.