is drug. There is but little doubt
that many more persons have been killed by the alcoholic treatment
for snake bites than have died from the effects of snake venom.
Inasmuch as there is a deep-rooted superstition among most people
that alcohol is the panacea for snake bite--and such notions die
hard--it may be well to say that all of the authenticated cases of
this character that have occurred in this country have recently
been collected, with the result that it was shown that only about
one man in ten dies who is bitten by a venomous serpent, and it is,
therefore, quite easy to understand why alcohol has maintained its
reputation as being an antidote in such cases--the chances being
nine to one in the victim's favor without any treatment whatever.

As soon as the patient's needs are attended to, it is well to find if the
snake that inflicted the wound was killed, and an examination of it
should at once be made as by determining the size and character of the
reptile an accurate forecast to the probable results may be made. In many
instances it will be found that the snake was not venomous, it having
made only a few scratches which are of no more consequence than the prick
of a brier. If it be found that the serpent inflicting the wound belongs
to one of the groups already referred to, the probabilities of a serious
result will depend upon the size and character of the snake, and also to
a considerable degree on whether one or both fangs entered the victim's
body. A full grown diamond-back rattlesnake, which may attain the extreme
length of eight feet, is perhaps the most dangerous of all the American
poisonous reptiles, though a fully grown coral-snake may be regarded as
almost, if not quite as, deadly. Next to these a large sized cotton-mouth
moccasin is perhaps most to be dreaded, to be followed, depending upon
their size, by the other varieties of rattlesnakes, the copperheads, and
finally the ground-rattler. The larger the serpent inflicting the wound
the greater is the result to be dreaded; naturally it also follows that
the larger the individual bitten the less the danger.

APPENDIX

RECIPES FOR COOKING COMMON FOODS

By DR. MARY E. LAPHAM

PREPARATION OF MEATS

_Roast Beef._--The problem of roasting beef is to have it sufficiently
cooked in the center without hardening and over-cooking the outside.
Burned edges and a raw center testify to a lack