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Whisky and Snake Bite

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 4, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 1.

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Whisky and Snake Bite

DESPITE the popular creed, it is now pretty sure that many men have been killed by the alcohol given to relieve them from the effects of snake bite, and it is a matter of record that men dead drunk with whisky and then bitten have died of the bite.—Prof. S. Weir Mitchell and E. T. Reichert, in Researches on Serpent Poison.
There is no known antidote by which the venom can be neutralized, nor any prophylactic. Whisky intoxication favors the injurious effect of the poison. What is required is to keep the patient alive until the poison is eliminated.—Prof. W. Watson Cheyne, King's College Hospital, London, in International Encyclopedia of Surgery.
In India whisky used to be given for snake bite, but it was found to interfere with the processes of repair, so is being abandoned.—Dr. Sims Woodhead, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, London, England.
Whisky has obtained its reputation as a cure because, as Dr. Mitchell has pointed out, if a snake strikes several times before inflicting a wound, the sacs containing the venom may be emptied, and the bite not introduce enough poison for fatal results.
Dr. Shepard, of Brooklyn, says a hot-air bath will drive out of the system any animal poison, heat being the most perfect eliminator known to man.—Selected.