If the bite be not on a finger or toe or part where a ligature can be applied, raise up the integument with the finger and thumb, and with a sharp penknife cut out a circular piece as big as a finger nail round each puncture, i.e., round the points of the finger and thumb, to the depth of quarter to half an inch. Then apply the hot coal or hot iron to the very bottom of the wounds.
Give fifteen drops of Liquor Ammoniæ, diluted with an ounce of water, immediately, and repeat it every quarter of an hour for three or four doses, or longer, if symptoms of poisoning appear.
Or give hot brandy, or rum, or whisky, or other spirit, with an equal quantity of water, about an ounce of each (for an adult) at the same intervals.
Should no symptoms of poisoning appear in half an hour after the application of the ligatures they should be relaxed, or the part will perish from gangrene; if they should, however, appear, the ligatures should not be relaxed until the person be recovering from the poison, or until the ligatured part be cold and livid.
Suction of the wounds is likely to be beneficial, but as it may be dangerous to the operator, it cannot be recommended as a duty.
If, notwithstanding, symptoms of poisoning set in, and increase, if the patient become faint or depressed, unconscious, nauseated or sick, apply Mustard Poultices, or Liquor Ammoniæ on a cloth, over the stomach and heart; continue the stimulants, and keep the patient warm, but do not shut him up in a hot, stifling room or small native hut; rather leave him in the fresh air than do this.
Do not make him walk about if weary or depressed; rouse him with stimulants, mustard poultices, or ammonia, but let him rest.
If the person be first seen some time after the bite has been inflicted, and symptoms of poisoning are present, the same measures are to be resorted to. They are less likely to be successful, but nothing else can be done.
In many cases the prostration is due to fear; the bite may have been that of a harmless or exhausted snake, and persons thus bitten will rapidly recover under the use of the above measures. If poisoned, but, as is frequently the case, not fatally, these measures are the most expedient; if severely poisoned, no others are likely to be more efficacious.
People should be warned against incantations, popular antidotes, and loss of time in seeking for aid.