Within the last five months we have had the opportunity to observe the effects of cortisone or corticotropin in treatment of three patients bitten by poisonous snakes. All received, in addition, standard treatment consisting of the application of a tourniquet and incision and suction of fang wounds, antivenom, tetanus antitoxin, antibiotics, and other symptomatic and supportive therapy. We have been impressed by the pronounced decrease in morbidity in these patients as compared with 11 others seen in the last three years who did not receive cortisone or corticotropin. We have been able to find no other reports of cortisone therapy for this disorder and only one report of the use of corticotropin.1 REPORT OF CASES Case 1.— A 4-year-old white girl was admitted to the Clinch Valley Clinic Hospital on Aug. 29, 1952, because of a snake bite of the left foot. She had been bitten by an unknown