SNAKE POISONING. Dying by Inches after the Bite of One of India's Deadly Serpents.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 63, 16 August 1884, Page 5

SNAKE POISONING. Dying by Inches after the Bite of One of India's Deadly Serpents.

vmonc: many instances 01 snaKe-Dite poioning I have seen, was a strong young 3rahmin of 20, well-known to me, who had >een bitten during tho night while watchng his maize crop. Ere I knew of it, they lad brought him into my compound in ront of the bungalow. As yet, he walked luite steadily, only leaning slightly on the inn of another man. There was that pecuiar drowsy look in his eyes, however, as rom a strong narcotic, which indicated his laving been bitten for some time, and left )ut little room for hopo now. He :ould still clearly tell me particuars. Ho had been bitten, he said, >n putting his foot to the ground while noving oft' his charpoy in the dark, but ihinking the bite was that of a nonjoisonous snake, had given no more heed ;o the matter, and gone to sleep again, till 10 was awoke bv his friends coming in search of him. With some difficulty I was i ible to iind tho bite— very faint, no larger ! Lhan the prick from a pin, but still the unnistakable double mark of the poison fangs. To felt the poison, he said, gradually iscending tho limb, and pointed to a part ust above tho knee, whore he felt it had ilready readied, the limb below that being, ie said, benumbed and painless to the ;ouch, like the foot when "asleep." I gave him the usual remedies, and kept iim walking to and fro, but gradually his imbs seemed to be losing their power of voluntary motion, and his head was beginling to droop from the overpowering drowsiness that was surely gathering over him. kt intervals he pointed out tho poison line rising higher, and was still able to answer questions clearly on being roused. At length it seemed to be of no use torturing iim further by keeping him moving about, \nd he was allowed to remain at rest. Shortly after this, while being supported in i sitting posture, all at once, without any premonitory sign, ho gave one or two long sighs, and life ceased, about an hour after lie had himself walked into the compound. There was something terribly real in this faculty of pointing out each stage of the ascending poison (as the snake-bitten patient always can) that way gradually bringing him nearer and nearer to death, with the prospect of only another hour or half-hour of lifo remaining to him ; and yet the patient does not seem to realise this with the keenness that an on-looker does, probably from the poison benumbing at the same time the powtrs of the mind as well as of the body. — From "All the Year Round."