Right there is the crux of the issue as Africa has such a wide diversity of venomous snakes.
Even the apparently simple idea of washing the wound with soap and water is some what controversial, as one school of thought thinks it removes excess venom to prevent it possibly entering the body via the wounds, where as others say leave the venom as Doctors at the hospital can swab it and use it to determine the species and therefore the treatment...
i dont know of any test that would be quick enough to be of help to test the venom......going to take a seriously specialized laboratory as far as i know, and time means tissue death with hemotoxic venom and you may only have hours with a neurotoxic....and its not a simple thing as some rattlers have primarily neurotoxic venom and there are cobras and other elapids(cobras, mambas, kraits, sea snakes and any Aussie front fanged snake are elapids as well as our coral snakes) that have primarily hemotoxic type venoms.....
in the US at the moment identification isnt important past was it a viper(rattler, cottonmouth or copperhead) or a coral snake, though if you were bit by a coral snake at this moment your kinda [bleep] as there is no coral snake antivenin in the US at the moment, none is currently being manufactured and the old stock pile of the last stuff hit its expiration date this last fall....at the moment all viper bites are covered under Cro-Fab though it works better for some species than others....however depending where your at it might be important to know if it was a mohave green or southern pacific as then the doc can be prepared for the neurological symptoms....
in other countries your prolly best off killing the snake and taking it with you to the hospital....
A serious student of the "Armchair Safari" always looking for Africa/Asia hunting books
