2. Suck the wound and be sure to spit out the poison and rinse the mouth afterward. It is safe, if you have no cuts or sores on the lips or in the mouth.
3. Enlarge the wound with a knife (in the direction of the bone, not across) to make it bleed more freely, and again suck the wound.
4. Apply to the wound any strong acid or caustic, such as carbolic acid, lime, wood ashes or tincture of iodine, or burn it with a hot iron. Telegraph wire will do.
5. Wash out the wound with hot water and pack with equal parts of baking soda and salt, and apply a bandage.
6. Then, in the case of a snake bite, loosen the tourniquet little by little, taking about half an hour so as to permit any poison that may remain in the wound to be gradually absorbed by the blood. In the case of a dog bite, the tourniquet is loosened at once.
After the tourniquet has been removed, the patient must rest quietly for several hours. If he feel faint, he may have a stimulant,—alcohol, coffee or tea,—but do not give the stimulant before the poison has been removed from the wound, because stimulants increase the heart beats and thereby hurry the poison into the blood.
If the dog is not mad (rabid), the wound does not need treatment different from any other kind of a wound.
When bitten by a snake, kill it, if possible, and have it shown to a doctor for examination.
[1481]. Bleeding. The following comparison between the blood and the water in a city will enable you to understand easily the question of bleeding: