The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-07-02
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
a DESPERATE REMEDY.


Extract from = Lecturss by J. II. Kellogg.
III. D., of the Battle Creek sanitsrium.
People who are ready to admit that
The effects of alcohol upon the human
stomach are bad under ordinary condi-
lions and rarely necessary for medical
purposes still think that nothing but
whisky will cure person bitten by .
rattlesnake. However, am inclined
to think that there is more of ,supersti-
lion than fact in regard to the supposed
benefit to be derived from the use of
alcohol to counterfeit the poison of the
|rattlesnake. At any rate l am quite
sure that whisky bite is a great deal
worse than a snake bite. But you say
man was bitten by a rattlesnake and
he drank large quantities of liquor and
it did not make him drunk-a man who
was not addicted to the use of liquor
and fraction of the quantity would
have made him dead drunk under oldi-
nary circumstances--doesn that prove
whisky to be an antidote? Or here is
another man bitten by rattlesnake
who took alcohol and did not die. Such
instances prove nothing. In the first
place, the reason that man who has
been thus bitten does not become drunk
by taking liquor is simply because the
poison of the snake is more viru]ent
than the poison of the whisky. 1t is
just the same with poisons which are
given as medicines Under certain con-
ditions, morphine can be administered
in doses which would p~ove fatal to one
in health. Nature mas her attention 50
thoroughly directed to the disease that
she pays no attention to the medicine.
On the other hand, some become ex-
ccedingly susceptible to the medicine.
If person is really poisoned by the
virus of rattlesnake, the whole sys-
tenn is aroused in alarm and conse-
quently alcohol can be taken in enor-
nous quantities and the body does not
give it recognition. 1t might also be
the case that the person was under
such state of mental excitement that
the alcohol would have no effect. Many
; man in the army was wounded quite
severely and yet so carried away by the
excitement of the battle that he did not
know until afterward that there was
anything the matter with him.
But you ask further, how about the
cases of individuals who took whisky
for the bite and got we'll? Many be-
lieve that if person bitten by a rattle
snake can be made dead drunk he will
recover. But the truth is that if you
can make him dead drunk, it merely
| shows that he was not effectively Bit
ten. The apparatus with which a rot
tlennake deals ont his virus is of bone
and made exactly like hypodermic
syringe, being sharpened off with a
chisel point. 1t is curved SO that if it
! strikes the skin Indirectly, it strikes on
the rounded side and does no harm for
, the poison slides off. Frequently a
snake will make two or three fruitless
thrusts and will empty his poison bag
before he pierces the skin at all. The
thrust has to be exactly right else the
! instrument will glance off and will not
penetrate the skin, or by getting too
much excited the snake spills out his
poison too soon and little or none gets
into the system. Or, again, if the bite
is made through clothing, very little of
/ the virus will penetrate. Probably not
more than one case in ten receives a
fatal bite and the remaining nine
, cases are the ones which get we'll when
treated with whisky for they would get
we'll anyway.
The proper thing to do is to imme-
diately extract the blood and the
| poison from the wound by sucking
1T with the mouth. The wound can
first be squeezed and cleansed
and then drawn with the lips with per-
feet safety. If the part is inacces-
sible, get another person to perform
the service for you. There are other
other remedies such as soaring with a
red-hot iron, the application of caustic
; or OF carbolic acid, but in the majority
OF cases these things are not at hand
and to wait to secure them would be at
the risk of life.-Reported by Helen L.
Manninr