Page:The poisonous snakes of India. For the use of the officials and others residing in the Indian Empire (IA poisonoussnakeso01ewar).pdf/13



Local.-When a person is effectively bitten by a poisonous snake, he feels a stinging sensation in the part penetrated. This is soon followed by pain, at first of a dull, aching, and subsequently, of a lancinating and piercing, character. The ultimate aud rather rapid effect is numbness terminating in local paralysis of sensation. There may also be slight swelling. In poisoning by the cobra, daboia, and other terrestrial snakes, there will usually be found the marks or points, sometimes indicated by a small film of clotted blood, where the two fangs have entered half an inch or more apart. Or, as in the case of a finger being bitten, there may only be one point of penetration, the other fang having missed altogether. At a later period the part assuincs a lcaden or livid liue, due in great part to the effusion of blood beneath the skin (ecchymosis). When the bite has been inflicted by a salt-water snake, the fang-marks are more difficult to distinguish; because the fangs are not much larger than the fish-like teeth situated immediately behind them. There may, further, be marks or scratches of some of the teeth as well as of the fangs. As the poison gains access to the blood, the general symptoms affecting the whole nervous organisation soon divert attention from, and eclipse, the local indications. Unless tho ligaturo has been applied at once or very soon after an effective bite these very soon make their appearance.

General.-Very soon after an effective bite, where the ligature las been delayed or not applied at all, the poison is absorbed into the blood, and makes its upon the great nerve-centres of the cord and medulla. The patient is extremely restless and excited. His aların amounts to horror, intensified by a deeply-rooted conviction of the utter hopelessness of his case, As the first signs of nervous depression, languor