American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-12-18
Curious Poison Stories.

A story is going round the daily press,
to the effect that man once spit into
rattlesnake's mouth, and the snake died |;
he did the same thing to an adder, and II
died also. Another adder would not open
Its mouth, SO he spit on stick, rubbed
the spittle on the adder's nose, and it died;
A non poisonous black snake was treated
in the same way, but it did not die; and
the conclusion is drawn that human
saliva is as poisonous for poisonous snakes
as the poison of snakes is for man..
In order to realize the improbability of
this story, we will state that the poison of
snakes is mt their saliva, but special
fluid secreted in bag situated near the
root of the poisonous fang, which is pro-
vided with channel to conduct the poison
from the bag to near the point, so that it
may he injected into the wound.
Many poisons, dangerous If given by
injection, are harmless In the stomach,
where. by the digestive powers of the gas
trIc and other Juices, they are decomposed
and made harmless. So the vaccine virus,
which by innoculation produces the we'll
known ulcer, is perfectly harmless when
swallowed; and several other organic
poisons, especially of the septic kind, of
animal origin, are only dangerous when
entering the system by a wound, and may
with impunity be taken into the mouth
and stomach. An excoriation or scratch
on The lips or tongue, by which they may
enter the circulation, is dangerous, as has
been proved by many examples. Hence
the danger of wounds during dissection by
medical students, by which the decom-
posed animal matter of the subject enters
the circulation, and kills the poor victim
rapidly; while students with an unim-
paired skin on their hands may dissect
any subject with impunity. A case is ON
Of 1a6x vub ho
dead body of her father. She had little
excoriatiOn on her lip, which was touched
by the moisture on the lips of the corpse
il soon infiamed with all the character
lstics of vlruleut dissection wound, and
in a few days she was a corpse also. The
poison had entered into the circulation of
her blood.
Experiments in this line are of course
highly Objectionable; but, as far as expe-
rience has shown, most poisons of this
kind may with impunity be taken in the
stomach. If the saliva OF man or animals
has any dangerous qualities, it is mostly
only manifest when entering the circula-
ton of the bitten individual, and especial
ly when the 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 Infatuated men or animals; while the
introduction of such saliva in the stomach
would undoubtedly, in most cases, not be
attended with serious consequences. This
shows the absurdity of. the idea that the
normal human saliva should be poison in
the mouth of any animal. whether possess
ing poison-bags connected with its teeth or
not.
The story reminds us of one which went
round the papers some years ago, about
a man who was bitten by rattlesnake
through his boot. Long after his death
every one who tried on that boot died in
consequence of scratch in the foot pro-
duced by a serpsnt's tooth projecting in
side the boot, and the cause of the mis-
chief was only discovered when many
persons had been Killed. The inventor of
this story did not know that the rattlesnake
poison is only active when freshly injected
from the poison-bag.-Seientife american.