The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-05-10
ANT1DoTEs FOB SNAKE BITES,
Interesting Experiments at the smithso
MAN Institution.

For number of months past the sci.
entists of the Smithsonian Institution
have been experimenting with antidotes
for poisonous snake bites. Mr.. Edmund
! S. Rheem, who has charge of the expert
| ments, believes that the mystery has at
last been solved. Iaborandi is the drug
which has thus far been used with great
| success upon animals, particularly guinea
pigs, rabbits and chickens. The venom
| is obtained by placing bit of cotton
| upon the end of stick and irritating the
| snake until it strikes the cotton and
leaves its venom there. The cotton is then
placed in small vessel containing gly.
cerine and when thoroughly saturated the
cotton is squeezed dry and the liquid
retained. Fifteen drops of this liquid,
which have been found to be equal to
four drops of pure poison, are hypoder-
mically administered to the subject. In
the majority of cases this is Immediately
followed by similar injection of jabo.
randi, although the latter has been found
to be equally eAicaciouS when lapse of
five minutes occurs.
The most poisonous reptile known to
American scientists is the rattlesnake.
1t is with this animal that all the recent
experiments have been made. A letter
was recently received at the institute
from New York gentleman who offers
to furnisha certain amount Of venom
from the cobra.de.capello. The officials
have written their acceptance of the offer
and are now awaitingits receipt.
The strength of these poisons is not
apparently dimished by the lapse oftime.
Mr. Rbeem says the records of the. insti.
tute show that venom which has been
retained twenty years is quite as deadly
in its effects when applied. as if fresh
from the snake. Mr.. Rheem tells remar.
kable story about hen at the institute
which had been inoculated with rattls.
snake poison six different times. After
the third inoculation it became venom
proof, and in the recent experiments it
has not been found necessary to apply
the antidote. The hen, Mr.. Rheem says,
is apparently as we'll as ever. She lays
an egg each day, which the janitor Of
the building eats with his breakfast.
The next experiments will be with pigs
and larger animals. Should these prove
successful the offer of an Ohio man to
present himself as subject will then be
considered.
Mr.. Rheem says the Smithsonian col.
lection of reptile numbers $4,000. It
embraces every variety Of reptile except
the hoopsnake. Thus far none Of these
have been secured, and their existence is
believed to be q myth. Colonel Tom
Ochiltree, formerly of Texas, but more
recently Of New York, has letter on file,
written four years ago, in which that
gentleman relates that the hoopsnake
has an existence, which is proven. by the
following incident, the correctness OF
which Col. Ochiltree afirms. The Co.
lionel Gays:
ga few weeks prior to the writing of
this letter negro in Central Texas was
chased by a hoopsnake. The negro was
mounted on mule. He saw that he
would be overtaken, whereupon he dis
mounted and sought shelter behind
large cypress tree. The snake uncoiled
and threw itself against the tree, bury.
ing the poisoned prong at the end Of the
tail SO deeply into the wood that it could
not extricate itself. Asplinter from the
tree struck the mule and killed it. Next
day the tree, which had been several feet
in circumference, had shriveled to the
size of sspling."-New York Herald.