es of the therapeutical gamut from
serpentaria[3] and boneset to guaco, cimicifugia, and _Aristolochia
India_ to curare, alum, chalk, and mercury to arsenic; and in the way
of surgical dressings and appliances everything from poultices of
human faeces,[4] burying the part bitten in fresh earth,[5] or
thrusting the member or entire person into the entrails of living
animals, to cupping, ligatures, escharotics, and the moxa.

[Footnote 3: Serpentaria derives its name from its supposed
antidotal properties, and guaco and _Aristolochia India_ enjoyed
widely heralded but rapidly fleeting popularity in the two Indias
for a season. Tanjore pill (black pepper and arsenic) is still
extensively lauded in districts whose serpents possess little
vitality, but is every way inferior to iodine.]

[Footnote 4: A Chinese remedy--as might be imagined.]

[Footnote 5: Still extensively practiced, the first in Michigan,
the latter in Missouri and Arkansas, and inasmuch as one is
cooling and soothing, and the other slightly provocative of
perspiration in the part, are not altogether devoid of
plausibility.]

Although the wounds of venomous serpents are frequently attended with
fatal results, such are not necessarily invariable. There are times
and seasons when all reptiles are sluggish and inactive, and when they
inflict comparatively trifling injuries; and the poison is much less
virulent at certain periods than others--during chilling weather for
instance, or when exhausted by repeated bites in securing sustenance.
Young and small serpents, too, are less virile than large and more
aged specimens, and it has likewise been observed that death is more
apt to follow when the poison is received at the beginning or during
the continuance of the heated term.

The action of the venom is commonly so swift that its effects are
manifested almost immediately after inoculation, being at once
conveyed by the circulatory system to the great nervous centers of the
body, resulting in rapid paralysis of such organs as are supplied with
motive power from these sources; its physiological and toxicological
realizations being more or less speedy accordingly as it is applied
near or remote from these centers, or infused into the capillary or
the venous circulation. Usually, too, an unfortunate experiences,
perhaps instantaneously, an intense burning pain in the member
lacerated, which is succeeded by vertigo, nausea, retching, faint