Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-08-27

II n NObhAs
About ten days ago I, myself in person, had
painful experience Of the awful effect Of snakes
poison l have received a dose of the cobra's
poison into my systematically a minute dose, or
4 should not have survived 1t. The accident hap
pened In q very curious way. | was poisoned by
the snake, but not bitten by him. / got the poison
secondhand. Anxious to witness tie effects Of
the poison of the cobra upon a rat, | took up a
couple in a bag, alive, to q certain cobra. | took
one rat out of the bag and put him into tho cage
with the snake. The cobra was coiled up among
the stones in the ceutre Of the cage apparently
asleep. When he heard the noise of the rat fall.
Ing into the cage, he just looked up and put out
his tongue, kissing at the same time. The rat got
In . corner and began washing himself, keeping
one eye on the snake, whose appearance he evil
IDENTIFY did not half like. Presently the rat ran
across the snakes body, and in an instant the lat
Ter assumed his fighting attitude. AS the rat pass
cd the snake, he made a dart, but, missing his aim
hit his nose a pretty hard blow against the side of
tho cage. This accident seemed to anger him, for
be spread out bis crest and waved it TO and fro in
the beautiful manner peculiar to his kind. The
rat became alarmed, and ran near him again.
Again cobra made a dart, and bit him, but did not
i think, inject any poison in him, the rat being SO
very active; at least no symptoms Of poisoning
were shown. The bite, nevertheless, aroused the
Ire Of the rat, for he gathered himself for a spring,
and measuring his distance, sprang right on to
the neck Of the cobra, who was waving about in
front of him. This plucky rat determined to die
hard, gave the cobra two or three severe bites in
the neck, the snake keeping his body erect all this
time and endeavoring to turn bis head round so as
70 bite the rat, who was c%linging on like the old
man in Sinbad the Sailor. Soon, however, cobra
changed his tactics. Tired, possibly, with sustain
ing the rat, he lowered his head, and the rat, find
ing himself again on terra frma, tried to run
away not go, for the snake, collecting all his force
brought down bis erected poison fangs, making
his head tell by its weight in giving vigor to the
blow, right on the body of the rat. This poor
beast now seemed to know that the fight was over.
and that he was conquered. lie retired to a corn
or of the cage, and began painting violently, endeav-
cring ct the same time, to steady his failing strength
with bis feet. His eyes were widely dilated, and
his mouth open, as if gasping for breath, The
cobra stood erect over him, Kissing and
putting out his tongue, as if conscious of victory.
In about three minutes the rat fell quietly on his
side and expired. The cobra then moved off and
took no further notice Of his defunct enemy
About ten minutes afterwards the rat was hooked
out of the cage for me to examine. No external
wound could l see anywhere, so | took out m
knife and began taking the skin of the rat. l
soon discovered two very minute punctures, like
small needle-holes, in the side Of the rat, where
the fapgs Of the snake had entered. The parts be-
tween the skin and the flesh, and the flesh itself,
appeared as though affected with modification,
even though the wound had not been iaicted above
. quarter Of an hour, if SO much.
Anxious to see if the skin itself was affected, l
scraped away the parts on it with my fnger-nail.
Finding nothing but punctures, l threw the rat
away and put the knife and skin in my pocket,
and started to 60 away. l not walked a hundred
yards before ali Of o sudden felt just as if some
body had come behind me and struck me o severe
blow on the head and neck, and at the same time l
experienced a most acute pain and sense of oppres-
sion at the chest as though a hot iron had been
run in and a hundred weight put on the top of it.
! knew Instantly, from what read, that l was
poisoned l said as much to my friend, a most in
telligent gentleman, who happend to be with me,
and told him if l fell to give me brandy and ean
de luce, words which he kept repeating ia case he
might forget them. At the same time l eujoined
him to keep me going and not on any account to al
low me to lie down. l then forgot everything for
several minutes, and my friend tells me ] rolled
about as il very faint and weak. He also informs
me that the first thing l did was to fall against him,
asking if 1 looked seedy. lie most wisely answer
ed, "No; you look very WE'LL" l don't think he
thoughs so, for his own face was as white as b
ghost l recollect this much. He tells me my face
was of a greenish yellow color. After walking, or
rather staggering, along for some minutes, grad
ually recovered my senses and steered for the near
est chemists shop. Rushing in. l asked for eau
de luce. OF course he had none, but my eye caught
the words, Esprit. ammonia. Co.." or hartshorn,
on a bottle. / reached it down myself, and pourl
ing a large quantity into a tumbler with q little
water, both Of which found on a soda water stand
In the shop, drank it of, thought it burnt my
mouth and lips very much. Instantly / felt relief
from the pain ut the chest and head. The chemist
stood aghast. and on my telling him what was
the matter, recommended a warm bath. If had
then followed his advice these words would never
have been placed on record. After a second
@draught at the hartshorn bottle, l proceeded on my
way. feeling very stupid and confused.
On arriving at my friends residence close By,
he kindly procured me a bottle of brandy, of
which drank four large wine-glasses, one after
the other, 5nt cid not feel the least tipsey after the
operation. Feeling nearly well, l started on my
way home, and then, for the first time, l perceived
most acute pain under the nail of the left thumbs;
this pain also ran up tho arm. / set to work to
suck the wound. and then found out how the poison
got into the system. About an hour before l ex-
smined the dead rat / had been cleaning the nail
with q psnknife. and had slightly separated the
nail from the skin beneath. Into this little crack
the poison had got when / was scraping the rats
skin to examine the wound. How virulent, there
fore. mdst the poison of the cobra be 1t already
had been circulated in the body of the rat, from
which I had imbibed it secondhand. ltiA
Il ks ,ExTIRMIEArIsG Rata PRESCRIPTION.
'aIn7 "rhs yernin Catcher. 176s." the author
gives the following prescription, acting upon the