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

look it between the eyes may uncover its pretense. For by this token may be
known the real Crotalids from the mock: a small but distinct pit between eye and
nostril. Lacking this mark, no ventral crawler in the land of the free need
cause a flutter in the most timid breast, with one notable exception.
BEWARE THE ELAPS
Shun, as you would a rabid dog, a pretty little red-and-black banded serpent
about as thick as your thumb. If any living creature whose habitat is the United
States deserves the epithet "deadly," it is the Elaps. Two species are known;
the harlequin snake, which ranges throughout the Gulf states to Texas and up the
Mississippi River to Ohio, and the Sonoran coral snake, found in the Southwest
only. By a strange perversion of facts, while the harmless hog-nosed snake
enjoys a repute of terror, the Elaps, most dangerous of all American reptiles,
is commonly regarded as harmless. Partly this is due to its slight and graceful
prettiness, partly to its innocent-appearing head, which shows no flattening
(the popularly understood mark of the venomous species), and partly to its
lethargic and peaceful disposition. Experimenters wishing to secure the venom of
the Elaps often find it difficult to rouse the snake to striking wrath.
Very few instances are known of Elaps bite, but those few unquestionably set
this ornamental creature in a class by itself, among American Ophidia, for
"results." Out of eight well-authenticated cases of Elaps bite, six of the
victims died. This is believed to indicate a falsely large percentage, however,
the scientific estimate of mortality being somewhere between twenty-five and
fifty per cent.
A government scientist tells me of a curious result from coral-snake bite which
came under his notice. The victim, who was handling the reptile preparatory to
photographing it, apparently overstepped the bounds of its habitual forbearance,
for it fastened upon his finger with such determination that it had to be pried
off. The man soon became unconscious, but rallied, and, after three days of
dubious condition, recovered. Every year since, at about the anniversary of the
bite, an ulcer forms upon the finger and the nail sloughs off. I have heard of
similar recurrent effects from crotaline poisoning, but none scientifically
attested, as is this phenomenon.
Before passing from the subject of snakes, let me make one point clear. While
the venomous snakes of this country are by no means "deadly" in the ordinary
sense of the term, their bite is always serious, both in its immediate effects
and in the possibility of after effects. The bitten person should get to a
physician at once. The immediate treatment is prompt incision and sucking of the
wound. Permanganate of potash for rubbing into the bitten place should always be
carried by persons traveling in a snake-infested country. If the bite is on a
limb, a light ligature will check the spread of the venom. Use whisky sparingly,
if at all, and then only in case of complete collapse.
The local treatments are most effective while the venom is still around the site
of the bite, and will reduce the injurious effects considerably. But after half
an hour or so the absorption of the venom becomes more general and the local
treatments ineffective. When the venom once enters into general circulation no
chemicals or medication can neutralize its effects, except a specific antivenin,
such as has been prepared by Dr. Noguchi at the Rockefeller Institute in New
York. Antivenin is the only antidote that can counteract the action of venom
anywhere in the body. It finds the venom wherever it is present and neutralizes
it there, without producing any ill effects on the system.