The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-08-19
PRICE TWO CENTS.
POISONED BY A MANS BITE.
WHAT PHYSICIANS SAY CONCERNING
THE DEATH or m. j. RUSSELL

| II q. SAFER 10 he Bitten by Twenty Dogs ts.s
By On. Angry Mantle Rapid,ty VITA
| which the Poison Acts and its viruience.
The death Of M. J. Russell OF 2i4 Franklin
street. Grcenpoint Brooklyn. on Friday. ro-
suited from wound that was inflicted by tom
ant. Thomas Kelly. with his teeth. II was
small cut on tho second finger OF tho left hand.
The house owned by Mr.. Russell is divided
into two dwellings. each OF which contains
three or four families. The landlord resided In
one Thomas Kelly hired the front half OF tho
| second story. and Mr.. Scarson the rear rooma.
Ono evening In March last the dwellors In the
second story had all drank pretty freely and In
wrangle Kelly beat Mrs. searson, knocking her
down. On the next day her husband mot Kolly
In the street and beat him In return. The Hght
was renewed at homo on tho 23d OF March.
Complaints OF ,hoir noisy disorder reached Mr..
Russell. He had demonstrated with Thorn. and
attempted to act as pcncemaker.
Kolly set upon him with club with which he
gave him terrible blow upon the head Then
he seized his finger between his teeth and bit IL
wolflshly. When Officer Holmes OF the Green
point Police Sound rushed into the house Rus
soil was menaced by an iron bar In the uplifted
hand OF Kelly. and its imminent descent would
have crushed his skull and killed him.
The first practitioner that Mr.. Russell visited
was DR.. l.. f. Van Giesen Of 81 Kent stroot.
Greenpont. DR.. Van Gesen said yesterday,
had very little to do with this case. II was
two or three days nfter the biting that Mr.. Rus
sell came to me-. Immediately advised him to
nay haye the whole finger ampuiated and predicted
did not do so, He. went away, seeming to be
offended. heard no more ot 1t for month.
II must have been more than four weeks aftor-
ward that he went 10 tho hospital and II was
then too late TO check the progress Of the poison
by the mere cutting OF OF the finger BY the
time tho second operation took place there
must have been stil less hope for his cure
treatment To one man / gave the same advice
that did 70 Russell, and he brusqucly rejected
T. He had a little abrasion near the end OF his
thumb. Some time aiterward he returned and
Il was then necessary 10 amputatc the entire
hand and wrist. The inflammation was only
that ara known. Another man. who refused to
submit 70 ,anputation when 1t was frat pro-
poison. Why, had rather be bitten by two
yes, twcnty-dogs than one man. The virus. I
be-, Is in the saliva aud is most deadly whom
formed by Or. Alexander u. Mott OF 90 Madison
avenue DR.. Mott said last evening; :" The
bitten finger when shown to me-. WAS swollen TO
four times its normal size The wound was in
the second Joint Tho bone was disenscd. and
an liberation had begun. After tho operation
he apparently did we'll The end Of the finger
hMlcd up
The second operation was performed by DR..
Mou's assistant Dr. James II. Taylor. OF 1874
East Twelfth street.
H. took out the whole Of the second finger.
including tho metacarpal bone. This wound
too; apparently healed. But. meanwhile there
had been absorption OF the poison In tho higher
glands. and an ahscess formed in the palm OF
the hand. All tho vessels were diseased.
Pyaemia erysipelas followed. There was
| death Of the bone.
After Mr. Russell returned home the wound.
| from which no blood had come in tho operation.
commenced bleeding Tho probable cause was
the eating of an ulcer into largo blood vessel
| Thus weakened the patient all the more rapidly
succumbed.
| The younger DIR. Mott. son OF the former. Wis.,
| tied Mr.. Russell twice in Greenpoint He
] thought the case not u very unusual one. Fry
| sipcas would follow from any poisoned wound.
| Ho did not think that anger would make the
| bite VI man moro dangerous Exactly what
| the virus Is Is not known.
| The elder Dr. Mott said that he had freluent-
| ly had cnsc- like Eussrl's under treatment nj
| tho Dsp"nsary. and had sometimes taken a
| quart Of matter from single gland in the arm
| p!t inc action Of the poison wa very much
| Ike that secretcd in dead human tissues. the
effect ot which. when inOcuatcd in the human
system, T. invariably fatal.
DR.. McCreery OF bellevue Hospital said { n
any bite penetrating tho bony Tissues was liksH
TO be very serious.
a newsdealer who lives in the house Of ths
late Mr.. Russell. and who attended him In his
las, no. said that the patient was III roo days
and nights In dyin... In life he had been VERY
robust man. After the mobilization heean he
did not move except in breathing and the
greater part Of his body was cold His eyes
stared at the ceiling. and his breathing was
thick and short. Exactly at 3 o'clock on Friday
ne gave n groat gasp and expired. The BODY
was buried yesterday at 3 o'clock