It is not a week ago since a lady of my acquaintance, being surprised at
her little dog's refusal to follow her into her bedroom one night,
instituted a search for the reason of the poor little creature's terror
and dismay, and discovered a snake coiled up under her chest of drawers.
At this moment, too, the local papers are full of recipes for the
prevention and cure of snake-bites, public attention being much
attracted to the subject on account of an Englishman having been bitten
by a black "mamba" (a very venomous adder) a short time since, and
having died of the wound in a few hours. In his case, poor man! there
does not seem to have been a chance from the first, for he was obliged
to walk some distance to the nearest house, and as they had no proper
remedies there, he had to be taken on a farther journey of some miles to
a hospital. All this exercise and motion caused the poison to circulate
freely through the veins, and was the worst possible thing for him. The
doctors here seem agreed that the treatment of ammonia and brandy is the
safest, and many instances are adduced to show how successful it has
been, though one party of practitioners admits the ammonia, but denies
the brandy. On the other hand, one hears of a child bitten by a snake
and swallowing half a large bottle of raw brandy in half an hour without
its head being at all affected, and, what is more, recovering from the
bite and living happy ever after.
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