In most cases
the wound is painful, sometimes exaggerated by the mental
condition, which is wrought up to a pitch rarely seen in other
equally fatal injuries. It is often difficult to discern the
exact point of puncture, so minute is it. There is swelling due
to effusion of blood, active inflammation, and increasing pain.
If the poison has gained full entrance into the system, in a
short time the swelling extends, vesicles soon form, and the
disorganization of the tissues is so rapid that gangrene is
liable to intervene before the fatal issue. The patient becomes
prostrated immediately after the infliction of the wound, and his
condition strongly indicates the use of stimulants, even if the
medical attendant were unfamiliar with the history of the
snake-bite. There may be a slight delirium; the expression
becomes anxious, the pulse rapid and feeble, the respiration
labored, and the patient complains of a sense of suffocation.
Coma follows, and the respirations become slower and slower until
death results. If the patient lives long enough, the
discoloration of the extremity and the swelling may spread to the
neck, chest and back. Loss of speech after snake-bite is
discussed in Chapter XVII, under the head of Aphasia.
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