oisoning by these plants,
the skin should be washed as quickly as is possible with alcohol, or some
substance like whisky that contains it; where this cannot be obtained,
hot water and soap should be liberally applied--the object, in either
case, being the removal of as much of the poison as is possible. After
the irritation of the skin has begun, the parts may be bathed in a one
per cent. solution of carbolic acid, to be repeated every few hours, as
the necessities of the case may demand. Lead-water is also frequently
used with benefit, lime-water also appears to be of use, but the various
powders and salves sold in stores rarely help the patient much. The best
thing after all is soap and water as hot as it can be borne; and
ordinarily the itching and inflammation will disappear in four or five
days, followed by scaling.

VENOMOUS SNAKES AND SNAKE BITES.

Much popular misapprehension exists on the subject of snakes, both as to
the results of their bites and the appropriate treatment under such
circumstances. It is not generally understood that a very large
percentage of our American snakes are entirely harmless--the poisonous
ones being decidedly more the exception than the rule.

Within the confines of the United States there exist only two families of
venomous serpents. By far the most numerous are three genera of viperine
snakes, including the rattlesnakes and moccasins; all of these have a
pit-like depression between the nose and eyes, and hence are called
_pit-vipers_. In the southern portion of our country there are two
species of a colubrine genus closely related to the dreaded cobra of the
East, one of them being called the coral-snake or harlequin snake, and
the other, which occurs in the southwest, is known as the Sonoran
coral-snake.

While there are three genera of vipers in America, two of them are so
closely related, and present characteristics that are so similar that the
ordinary observer would regard them as being identical, and inasmuch as
the character of their poison seems in every way similar, for practical
purposes it would seem desirable to include them under one head; in both
genera, the species have rattles on the tips of their tails, the more
common being the ordinary rattlesnakes (genus _Crotalus_), of which there
are twelve species in the United States, and the ground-rattlesnakes
(genus _Sistrurus_), of which there are two species.

Closely related to the rattlesnakes are the true mo