Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES 441speedily discolored and swollen. Within about fifteenminutes, if no cautery or ligature or serum injectionhas been applied, the victim becomes dull andlanguid, breathing with difficulty. The venom firstenfeebles the heart, then the lungs. Great swellingand discoloration extend up the limbs and trunic.The temperature rises, the victim staggers, becomesprostrated, is attacked with cold sweats and vomiting,may swoon repeatedly, and death may ensuew^ithin ten or twelve hours. If an important bloodvessel has been pierced by a fang and considerablevenom injected, the victim may die within twentyminutes.Rattlesnake poison has a tendency to rot the bloodvessels,and may cause a general seepage of bloodthroughout the system. In some cases a whole limbis soaked to the bone with decomposed blood. Frequentlythere is suppuration, and gangrene may setin, from which a patient who had recovered fromthe constitutional symptoms may die a week or moreafter the injury was received.Much depends upon the part struck, and the quantityof venom injected. Often it happens that onlyone fang penetrates, or only the surface of the skinmay be scratched. Bites on the bare skin are moredangerous than those received through the clothing.In a large majority of cases the wound does nottouch a blood-vessel directly, and the patient willrecover with no other treatment than a ligaturepromptly applied, and a free cutting and kneadingof the wound to expel as much as possible of thepoison before it has had time to enter the circulation.Such measures, however, must be taken at once, asabsorption works quickly.Remedies.—The only positive antidote for snakepoison, after it has entered the circulation, is antivenomserum. This is prepared by injecting intoa horse or mule a fractional dose of the venom of asnake, or a mixture of those of different species