Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-08-28
1t is Safer to be Bitten by Twenty
Dogs than by One Angry Man-The
Rapidly with which the Poison
Acts and its viruience.
From the New York Sun.

Rapidly with which the Poison
Acts and its viruience.
From the New York Sun.
The death of NJ. j. Russell. of 2l4
Franklin street, Greenpoint, Brook
lyn, on Friday, resulted from wound
that was inflicted by tenant, Thorn
as Kelly, with his teeth. 1t was q
small cut on the second finger of the
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. Thorn
as Kelly hired the front half of the
second story, and Mr.. Searson the
rear rooms One evening in March
last the jewellers in the second story
had all drank pretty freely, and in q
wrangle Kelly beat Mrs. Searson,
knocking her down. On the next
day Ter husband met Kelly in the
street and beat him in return. The
fight was renewed at home on the
23d of March. Complaints of their
noisy disorder reached Mr.. Russell,
He had demonstrated with them, and
attempted to cot a, poaoomaku,. ---.-
Kelly 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
it wolfishly. When Officer Holmes,
OF the Greenpoint Police Squad, rush.
ed into the house, Russell was menace
ed 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.. Rus
sell visited was DIR. L. E. Van Gle
sen, Of 81 Kent street, Greenpoint.
DIR. Van Giesen said yesterday: 81
had very little to do with this CASE
1t was two or three days after the
biting that Mr.. Russell came to me.
| immediately advised him to have
the whole finger amputated, and pre-
dicted that he would have serious
trouble with it if he did not do SO.
He went away, seeming to be often
ded. heard no more of it for
month. II must have been more than
fou: weeks afterward that he went
to the hospital, and it was then too
late to check the progress Of the pois-
on by the mere cutting off Of the fin
ger. By the time the second opera
ton took place there must have been
still less hope for his cure.
81 have had few cases of MAYHEM
under treatment. To one man gave
the same advice that did to Russell,
and he brusquely rejected it. He had
little abrasion near the end of his
thumb. Some time afterward he re-
turned, and it was then necessary to
amputate the entire hand and wrist.
The inflammation was only checked
by applying the most powerful caus-
tics that arc known. Another man,
who refused to submit to amputation
when it was first proposed, died from
the erysipelas induced by the poison.
Why, had rather be bitten by two
yes, twenty-dogs than one man.
The virus, | believe, is in the saliva,
and is most deadly when the person
who bites is enraged."
The first operation upon Russell
was performed by DR.. Alexander B.
Mott, of 81 Madison avenue. DR..
Mott said last evening: "The bitten
finger when shown to me, was swol-
len to four times its normal size. The
wound was in the second Joint. The
bone was diseased, and an liberation
had begun. After the operation he
apparently did well. The end of the
finger healed up"
The second operation was perform
ed by DIR. Motifs assistant, DR..
James B. Taylor, of l34 East Twelfth
street.
lie took out the whole of the sec.
ond finger, including the metacarpal
bone. This wound, too, apparently
healed. But, meanwhile, there had
been absorption of the poison in the
higher glands, and an abscess formed
in the palm of the hand. All the YES
sells were diseased. Pyaemia erysip.
elias followed. There was death OIL
the bone.
After Mr.. Russell returned home
the wound, from which no blood had
come in the operation, commenced
bleeding. The probable cause was
the eating of AN ulcer into a large
blood vessel. Thus weakened the pa
tient all the more rapidly succumb-
ed.
The younger DR.. Mott, sou of the |
former, visited Mr.. Russell twice in
Greenpoint. He thought the case not
q very unusual one. Erysipelas |
would follow from any poisoned
wound. He did not think that anger
would make the bite of a man more |
Exactly what the virus
is is not known.
The elder DIR. Mott said that he had |
had cases like Russell's I'M
der treatment at the Dispensary, and
had sometimes taken quart of mat
ter from single gland in the arm.
pit. The action of the poison was
very much like that secreted in dead
human tissues, the effect Of which,
" hen inoculated in the human sys-
tenn, is invariably fatal.
DIR. McCreery, of Bellevue Hospit-
al, said that any bite penetrating the
bony tissues was likely to be very Sc
rious.
A newsdcaler, who lives in the
house of the late Mr.. Russell. and who
him in his last hours, said
that the patient was three days and
nights dying. In life he had been q
very robust man. After the mortifi-
cation began, he did not move except
IN breathing, and the greater part of
ais body was cold. His eyes stared
It the ceiling, and his breathing was
hick and short. Exactly at 3 o'clock
N Friday he gave great gasp and
xpired. The body was buried yes
erdsy at 3 o'clock.
A subscriber wrote to make some
Inquiries about tho next world fair, {
vkerenpon the wicked editor replied |
hat he was under the impression that
1e next world wouldn't haye any
lir. &c
~m