The above treatment is to be persevered in for three or four hours, or until the pulse and breathing have ceased for at least one hour. It is an erroneous opinion that persons are irrecoverable because life does not soon make its appearance; as cases are on record of a successful result even after five hours' perseverance in the use of the above means.
APPEARANCES WHICH GENERALLY INDICATE DEATH.
There is no breathing or heart's action; the eyelids are generally half closed; the pupils dilated; the jaws clenched; the fingers semi-contracted; the tongue appearing between the teeth, and the mouth and nostrils are covered with a frothy mucus. Coldness and pallor of surface increase.
[3] A good plan is to turn the body gently over for a few seconds with the face to the ground, one of the hands being placed under the forehead. By this means the water will run out of the mouth and the tongue will fall forward, leaving the breathing opening free. On no account should the body be held up by the feet as has been advised by some old writers.
APPENDIX B.
SUMMARY OF TREATMENT OF PERSONS BITTEN BY VENOMOUS SNAKES.[4]
As soon as possible after a person is bitten by a snake, apply a ligature, made of a piece of cord, round the limb or part at about two or three inches above the bite.
Introduce a piece of stick or other lever between the cord and the part, and by twisting tighten the ligature to the utmost (See Stick Tourniquet, p. 224).
Apply other two or three ligatures above the first one at intervals of four or six inches, and tighten them also. After the ligature has been applied, scarify by cutting across the puncture to the depth of a quarter of an inch with a penknife or other similar cutting instrument, and let the wounds bleed freely; or better still, excise the punctured part.
Apply either a hot iron or live coal to the bottom of these wounds as quickly as possible, or some carbolic or nitric acid.