Henderson Daily Dispatch

By LOGAN CLENDENING, M. D.

WITH THE increase in the out-door life—automobiling, camping out, fishing and hunting—the hazard of poisonous snake bites also increases. Snake venom may be poisonous in one of two ways, depending on the variety of snake. One sort of venom is neurotoxic—it affects the nervous system, causing paralysis, blindness, convulsions, etc. The other sort is hemotoxic, and causes disturbance by breaking down the red blood cells and the walls of the blood vessels, allowing hemorrhage, etc. In this country the coral snakes are the only ones which produce neurotoxic venom. The moccasin, copperhead and rattlesnake produce the hemotoxic variety.

Nearly all parts of the United States are inhabited by poisonous snakes. The copperhead has a habitat from Massachusetts, as far west as Illinois, through the northerly southern states. The moccasin is almost entirely confined to the southeastern states. The rattlesnake is widely distributed everywhere west of the Alleghenies. I have seen rattlesnakes as far north as Wisconsin.

Most people who have had much experience do not believe that rattlesnake bites are very dangerous. Statistics show, however, they are fatal in from 10 to 25 per cent of cases.

In treatment, the most important