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.

A peculiar complication is a distressing inflammation of the mouth of
individuals that have sucked the wounds containing venom. This custom
is still quite common, and is preferred by the laity to the surer and
much wiser method of immediate cauterization by fire. There is a
curious case reported of a young man who was bitten on the ankle by a
viper; he had not sucked the wound, but he presented such an enormous
swelling of the tongue as to be almost provocative of a fatal issue. In
this case the lingual swelling was a local effect of the general
constitutional disturbance.

Cases of Snake-bite.--The following case illustrative of the tenacity
of virulence of snake-venom was reported by Mr. Temple, Chief Justice
of Honduras, and quoted by a London authority. While working at some
wood-cutting a man was struck on a heavy boot by a snake, which he
killed with an axe. He imagined that he had been efficiently protected
by the boot, and he thought little of the incident. Shortly afterward
he began to feel ill, sank into a stupor, and succumbed. His boots were
sold after his death, as they were quite well made and a luxury in that
country. In a few hours the purchaser of the boots was a corpse, and
every one attributed his death to apoplexy or some similar cause. The
boots were again sold, and the next unfortunate owner died in an
equally short time. It was then thought wise to examine the boots, and
in one of them was found, firmly embedded, the fang of the serpent. It
was supposed that in pulling on the boots each of the subsequent owners
had scratched himself and became fatally inoculated with the venom,
which was unsuspected and not combated. The case is so strange as to
appear hypothetic, but the authority seems reliable.

The following are three cases of snake-bite reported by surgeons of the
United States Army, two followed by recovery, and the other by death:
Middleton mentions a private in the Fourth Cavalry, aged twenty-nine,
who was bitten by a rattlesnake at Fort Concho, Texas, June 27, 1866.
The bite opened the phalangeal joint of the left thumb, causing violent
inflammation, and resulted in the destruction of the joint. Three years
afterward the joint swelled and became extremely painful, and it was
necessary to amputate the thumb. Campbell reports