SOME ACCIDENTS--(_Contd._)
SNAKE-BITE
There is no limit to the superstitions current among us in regard to
snakes. From time immemorial we have cultivated a terrible fear of the
snake; we even dread the very mention of its name. The Hindus worship
the serpent, and have set apart a day in the year (_Nagapanchami_) for
that purpose. They suppose that the earth is supported by the great
serpent Sesha. God Vishnu is called _Seshasayee_, as he is supposed to
sleep on the Serpent-God; and God Siva is supposed to have a garland of
serpents round his neck! We say that such and such a thing cannot be
described even by the thousand-tongued Adisesha, implying our belief in
the snake's knowledge and discretion. The serpent Karkotaka is said to
have bitten King Nala and deformed him, so that he might not suffer any
harm in the course of his wanderings. Such conceptions are also to be
met with among the Christian nations of the West. In English a man is
very often described to be as wise and cunning as a serpent. And in the
Bible, Satan is said to have assumed the shape of a serpent in order to
tempt Eve.
The real reason for the popular dread of snakes is obvious. If the
snake's poison should spread over the whole body, death must
necessarily ensue; and since the idea of death is so dreadful to us, we
dread the very name of a snake. Hence, our worship of the snake is
really based on our fear. If the snake were a little creature, it would
hardly be worshipped by us; but since it is a big creature, and a
strangely fascinating one, it has come to be deified and worshipped.
The Western scientists of to-day hold that the snake is merely a
creature of instinct, and it should be destroyed forthwith wherever
found. From the official statistics, we gather that not less than 20,000
persons die every year in India of snake-bite alone. The destruction of
every venomous snake is rewarded by the state, but it is really a
question if the country has benefitted by it in any way. We find from
experience that a snake never bites wantonly, but only as a retaliatory
measure when it is molested in any way. Does this not bespeak its
discretion, or at the least its innocence? The attempt to rid Hindustan,
or any portion thereof, of snakes is as ridiculous and futile as trying
to wrestle with the air. It may be possible to prevent snakes coming to
a particular place by a systematic process of extermination, but this
can never be done on a large scale. In a vast country like India, it
would be an altogether foolish enterprise to try to avoid snake-bites by
wholesale destruction of the snakes.
Let us never forget that the serpents have been created by the same God
who created us and all other creatures. God's ways are inscrutable, but
we may rest assured that He did not create animals like the lion and the
tiger, the serpent and the scorpion, in order to bring about the
destruction of the human race. If the serpents were to meet in council
and conclude that man has been created by God for their destruction,
seeing that he generally destroys a snake wherever found, should we
approve of their conclusion? Surely not. In the same way, we are wrong
in regarding the serpent as a natural enemy of man.
The great St. Francis of Asissi, who used to roam about the forests, was
not hurt by the serpents or the wild beasts, but they even lived on
terms of intimacy with him. So too, thousands of _Yogis_ and _Fakirs_
live in the forests of Hindustan, amidst lions and tigers and serpents,
but we never hear of their meeting death at the hands of these animals.
It might, however, be contended that they must certainly be meeting
their death in the forests, but that we do not hear of it, as we live so
far away. Granted; but we cannot deny that the number of _Yogis_ that
live in the forests is nothing in comparison with that of the serpents
and wild beasts, so that, if these animals were really the natural
enemies of man, the whole race of _Yogis_ and other dwellers in the
forests should become very rapidly extinct, especially since they have
no weapons with which to defend themselves against their attacks. But
they have by no means become extinct, and we may conclude, therefore,
that they have been allowed to live unmolested in the forests by the
serpents and wild beasts. In fact, I have implicit faith in the doctrine
that, so long as man is not inimical to the other creatures, they will
not be inimical to him. Love is the greatest of the attributes of man.
Without it the worship of God would be an empty nothing. It is, in
short, the root of all religion whatsoever.
Besides, why should we not regard the cruelty of the serpents and the
wild beasts as merely the product and reflection of man's own nature?
Are we any the less murderous than they? Are not our tongues as venomous
as the serpent's fangs? Do we not prey upon our innocent brethren much
in the same way as lions and leopards? All scriptures proclaim that,
when man becomes absolutely harmless, all the other animals will begin
to live on terms of intimacy with him. When feuds and conflicts as
fierce as that between the lion and the lamb are going on within our own
breasts, is it any wonder that such things should go on in the external
world? For, we are but the reflection of the world around us; all the
features of the external world are found reflected in the inner world
of our mind. When we change our nature, the world around should also
inevitably change. Do we not find that the world assumes a totally
different aspect to those individual men and women who change their own
nature by strenuous self-discipline? This is the great mystery of God's
creation as well as the great secret of true happiness. Our happiness or
otherwise rests entirely upon what we are; we have no need to depend on
other people at all in this matter.
Our excuse for writing at such length on snake-bite is this. Rather than
merely prescribe cure for snake-bite, we thought it as well to go a
little more deeply into the matter, and point out the best way of
getting rid of our foolish fears. If even a single reader were to adopt
in practice the principles we have been discussing, we shall consider
our effort amply rewarded. Moreover, our object in writing these pages
is not merely to give the generally accepted hygienic principles, but to
go to the root of the matter, and deal with the most fundamental
principles of health.
Modern investigations have also shown that the man who is perfectly
healthy, whose blood has not been tainted by excess of heat, and whose
food is wholesome and _Satvic_, is not immediately affected by the
poison of the snake, but that, on the other hand, its effect is
instantaneous as well as fatal on the man whose blood has been tainted
by drink or unwholesome food. One doctor goes so far as to say that the
blood of the man who eschews salt and the like, and lives exclusively on
a fruit-diet, remains so pure that no kind of poison can have any effect
on him. I have not had enough experience myself to say how far this is
true. The man whose diet has been free from salt and the like for only
one or two years cannot be said to have attained this stage of perfect
immunity, for the blood which has been tainted and poisoned by bad
practices continued for years cannot be brought back to its normal state
of purity in the short period of a year or two.
It has further been scientifically demonstrated that a man under the
influence of fear or anger is much more and much sooner, affected by
poison than when in the normal condition. Everybody knows how fear and
anger make the pulse and the heart beat faster than the normal rate, and
the quicker the flow of blood in the veins, the greater the heat
generated. But the heat generated by evil passions is not healthy, but
extremely harmful. Anger is, indeed, nothing but a variety of fever.
Hence the best antidote against snake-bite is to use pure and _Satvic_
food in moderation, to rid our minds of all evil passions like anger and
fear, to refrain from giving way to panic, to retain perfect confidence
in the saving power of a pure and godly life, and to remain
self-possessed in the full faith that we are ever in God's hands, and
that the span of life which He has allotted to us can on no account be
curtailed or exceeded.
Dr. Fitz-Seaman, the Director of the Port Elizabeth Museum, who has
devoted a large portion of his life to the study of snakes, their
varieties and their habits, and who is a great authority on snake-bite
and its cure, has told us, as a result of his numerous experiments, that
the majority of the so-called deaths by snake-bite are really caused by
fear and the wrong remedies applied by quacks.
We should remember that all snakes are not venomous, and that even the
bite of all venomous snakes is not immediately fatal either. Moreover,
the snakes do not always get an opportunity of injecting their venom
into the body of their victim. We should not, therefore, give way to
panic even when we are bitten by a venomous serpent, especially since
very simple remedies are available, which can be applied by ourselves
without any aid from others.
The part of the body immediately above the point at which the snake has
bitten should be tied round with tight bandage, which should be further
strengthened by means of strong pencils or pieces of wood, so that the
poison may not ascend through the veins. Then the wound should be cut
half an inch deep with the fine point of a knife, so that the poisoned
blood may freely flow, and the hollow should be filled with the dark-red
powder sold in the bazaars and known as Potassium Permanganate. If this
is not available, the blood issuing from the wound should be well sucked
and spat out, by the patient himself or by somebody else, until all the
poison has been removed. Of course, no man who has a wound on the lips
or the tongue should be allowed to suck this poisoned blood. This
treatment should be applied within 7 minutes of the accident,--that is to
say, before the poison has had time to ascend and diffuse through the
body. As already mentioned, the German doctor who has specialised in
mud-cure, claims to have cured snake-bite by burying the patient under
fresh earth. Although I have not tried the use of mud in snake-bites, I
have unbounded faith in its efficacy from my experience in other cases.
After the application of Potassium Permanganate (or the sucking out of
the blood, in the alternative,) a poultice of mud half an inch in
thickness, and big enough to cover the whole region around and above the
affected part, should be applied. There should be kept in every home a
quantity of well-sifted and powdered mud in a tin ready for use. It
should be so kept as to be exposed to light and air, and free from
dampness. Suitable bandages of cloth should also be kept so as to be
within reach when needed. These will be found useful not only in
snake-bite, but in numberless other cases as well.
If the patient has lost consciousness, or if respiration seems to have
ceased, the process of artificial respiration already described in
connection with drowning should be resorted to. Hot water, or preferably
a decoction of cloves and the bark of the bay-tree, is very useful for
recovering consciousness. The patient should be kept in the open air,
but if his body seems to have taken cold, bottles of hot water should be
employed, or a piece of flannel dipped in hot water and wrung out should
be rubbed over the body, to produce warmth.