The Weston Democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1875-current, 1875-12-27
CnriOns Poison Stories.

A story is going round the daily press,
to the effect that man once spit into
rattlesnake's i mouth, AID tue snsko died |;
he did the snme thing to IN adder, and
it died also. Another adder would not
open its mouth, so he spit on q stick,
rubbed the spittlo on the adder's nose,
and it died. A non-poisonous black
snake wns treated in the same way, but
it did not die =; md the conclusion is
drawn that human saliva is as poisonous
for poisonous snakes rs the poison Of
snakes is for man.
In order to realize tho improbability
OF this story, We will state that the
poison OF snakes is not their saliva, but
special fluid secreted in bag situated
near the root Of the poisonous fang,
which is provided with channel to con.
duct the poison from the bag to near the
point, so that it may be injected into the
wound.
Many poisons, dangerous il given by
injection, are harmless in the stomach,
where, by the digestive powers Of the
gastric and other juices, they are decom-
posed and made harmless. So the vac
cine virus, which by inoculation pro-
duccs the we'll known ulcer, is perfectly
harmless when swallowed and several
other organic poisons, especially OF the
septic kind, OF animal origin, arc only
dangerous when entering the system by
q wound, and may with impunity bc
taken into the mouth aud stomach. An
excoriation or scratch on the lips or
tongue, By which they may enter the
circulation. is dangerous, rs hns boen
proved by many examples. Hence tho
danger Of wounds during dissection By
medical students, by which the Iecom-
posed animal matter OF the subject en-.
tiers the circulation, and kills the poor
victim rapidly while students with MI
unimpaircd skin on their hands may dis
sect any subject with impunity. A case
is on record Of young Indy who kissed
the dead body OF her father. She had .
little excoriation on her lip, which was
touched by tho moisture on the lips OF
the corpse; it soon inflamel with NIL
the characteristics Of u virulent disssc-
ton wound, apd i'll few days she was u
corpse also. The poison had entered
into tho circulation Of her blood.
Experiments in this limo are OF course
highly Objectionable ; but Ms for as OK.
perience hns shown, most poisons OF
this kind may with impunity 10 taken
in the stomach. II the saliva Of man or
animals has any dangerous qualities, it
is mostly only manifest when entering
tho circulation Of the bitten individual,
aud especially WHEN tho saliva has been
changed in its nature by the excitement
OF passions, such as great fear, anger,
etc. Hence arises the often malignant
appearance Of bites by iniuriated men or
animals while the introduction Of slch
saliva into the stomach weuld undOUbt-
edIy, in most cases, net bo attended
with selious consequences. This shows
tho absurdity OF the idoa that the nor
nal human saliva should DO poison III
the mouth Of my animal, ,whetberpossess-
ing poison bags connected with its
teeth or not.
The story reminds us Of one which
went round tho papers SOnio years ago,
about muu who was bitten by II n!.le-
snake through his boot. Long after lis
death, every one who tried on tho boot
died Of the consequence Of y scratch in
the foot, produced by u serpent's tooth
projecting inside the boo: ; and the
cause Of tho mischief was orly discover
cd when many persons had been killed.
The inventor Of this story dill not know
that the rattlespake poison is only active
when freshly injected from tho poison
baD,