"SamuelHopkinsAdams-ThePoisonBugaboo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Adams Samuel Hopkins)

power against the fact of the laborer's being bitten in a worse place (for
crotaline venom is much more effective in an upper limb or extremity than in a
lower), we have a fairly illustrative instance of the relative merits of
alcoholic and non-alcoholic measures.
WHEN RATTLESNAKES KILL
Thirteen cases of death following rattlesnake and copperhead bite in which
satisfactory clinical data were obtainable, are given by Prentiss Willson. Of
the victims, five were young children, one was a fourteen-year-old boy, one a
chronic drunkard, and one a leper who submitted to the stroke of a captive
rattlesnake in the mad hope that it would cure his affliction. It did Ч in
twenty-four hours. Of the remaining five, three were dosed with alcohol in large
quantities. In several of the cases, notably those of the children, there seemed
to be at least an even chance of recovery, when the ligatures binding the
affected limb were loosened to relieve the pain, with quickly fatal results. Two
of the fatalities were attributed, not immediately to the venom, but to the
secondary blood-poisoning, this being the case with the only copperhead bite in
the list.
Death resulting typically from crotaline poisoning occurred in two instances,
one the fourteen-year-old boy, who was struck by a large rattlesnake and died in
six hours, despite skilled and prompt medical attendance; the other, a Dr. Post,
into whose veins, it would appear, the poison entered immediately, since a jet
of blood spurted from the wound inflicted by the captive rattlesnake. The man
passed from great agony into coma, from which he never rallied, death ensuing in
five hours after the bite. There is nothing in these data to indicate that a
full-grown man in normal health, and with proper treatment, will succumb to
crotaline poisoning unless the venom enters a vein, direct.
In the matter of the comparative potency of snake poisons, there are apparent
contradictions. In the order of recorded fatalities, the rattlesnake ranks
easily first, with the water moccasin a rather distant second, and the
copperhead a very poor third. Yet experiments upon animals indicate that
moccasin venom is five times as powerful as rattlesnake, though only three times
as powerful as copperhead. Taking the cobra as the basis of estimate, it
requires only twice as much moccasin venom as it does cobra poison to kill a
guinea pig, whereas it requires six times as much copperhead and ten times as
much rattlesnake virus. Why, then, is the rattler pre-eminent over its more
virulent cousins? Probably for two reasons Ч the greater amount of venom
secreted, and the superior power with which the rattler drives its fangs home.
NO VIPERS IN THIS COUNTRY
Fully as much terror attaches, in the country districts, to the puff adder or
sand viper as to the rattlesnake or copperhead. This is a suggestive bit of
superstition, since there's no such thing as an adder or viper on the Western
hemisphere and never has been one, unless it came, carefully pickled, in a jar.
What passes for the supposedly deadly reptile is the common hog-nosed or bull
snake. It is about as dangerous as an infuriated rabbit. But it puts up one of
the best "bluffs" known to natural history. When caught at its favorite
occupation of basking in the open, without convenient avenue of escape, it
flattens its head, and strikes right and left, blowing and hissing with an
aspect much more terrifying than that of the truly venomous species. Then, when
the objects of its fury have taken to trees or adjacent fences, it glides
quietly away into the grass and effaces itself. Any one who has the nerve to