It has been asserted by some that very large doses of strychnine
are directly antidotal to snake venom, but more recent experience
does not tend to confirm this view; still there is no harm in
making the trial, and if the services of someone capable of giving
the injections can be secured, the treatment is certainly worth the
trial. The immediate injection into the tissues around the wound of
a one-per-cent. watery solution of chromic acid or potassium
permanganate is thought to be of value by destroying the poison,
but in order to be efficient it must be administered within a short
time after the bite has been received. Should the patient's
condition become serious, and the breathing finally stop,
artificial respiration may be resorted to. As soon as the remedies
suggested have been tried, it is time for us to go back to the
ligature, which cannot be suffered to remain around the limb
indefinitely, as by cutting off the blood-supply it will sooner or
later produce death of the tissues. From time to time we should
slowly loosen the bandage, thus allowing a little of the poison to
pass into the body, and at the same time permit the entrance of a
small quantity of blood into the tissues of the limb beyond the
ligature; the bandage should of course be tightened at the end of a
half a minute, and it should be alternately loosened and tightened
every half hour until the patient is considered to be out of
danger.

The reader cannot fail to have observed that nothing has been said
concerning the use of alcohol in the treatment of snake-bite, and the
matter is only here referred to for the purpose of condemning it as being
unsound in theory and bad in practice.

The idea that this drug is of value in snake bite doubtless
originally arose from the fact that those bitten by poisonous
serpents were depressed, and, as in the past alcohol was considered
the best of all stimulants, it is not surprising that its use was
generally considered to be essential. As we now know, however, that
alcohol is a depressant rather than a stimulant, and as numerous
experiments carried out on animals have clearly shown that it does
harm in snake bite rather than good, there is every reason why we
should cease to endanger the lives of those already poisoned by
adding to the trouble by using th