Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-07-04
HOW THE CHA MONSTER KILLS.

HOW The GILA MONSTER KILLS.
some Experiments with the Poison of
this venomous Lizard.
rs he poisonous?" said q young man
deau.
Well, / should soy he was. It isn't
his breath, though. A man from Ari-
IONA said that the forked tongue was
the sting"
You're wrong" said a listener; cts
breath is what kills people. I heard a
woman say that a single blast of its
breath was sure death"
That may be-" said another; "but I
saw y man die from the bite of one, and
that is the secret of it. I'd rather have
q rattler bite me any day."
Where was it," queried a startled
Over in Arizona" was the reply.
"A friend of mine had one in a box lust
outside. OF a saloon, and one day a chap
came along who was so drunk that he
was ready to eat up the earth. He wa
AFRAID OF nothing, and when he saw the
box and the sign Hands of-Poison-
eous,' he swore he could handle it, and
before they could prevent him he ripped
oil the Stats and made a grab at it.
The thing twisted around and bit him
on the finger, and, to make a long story
short, 1 saw him die in the middle Of
the street a short time after"
The subject of this conversation was
a pale yellow-and-black, blunt-headed
lizard, about a foot in length, that
rested upon a bed of sand in a small
wooden box. It was the famous ella
monster of Arizona, the only poisonous
lizard in the world and as ugly and dis
agreeable a looking creature as n
could imagine.
The head was long and blunt, the
eyes black and bead-like. the tail half
the length of the body, thick-set and
club-like. The entire body seemed en-
cased in a thinly-coated armor, marked
curlously with yellow and black.
The ella monster is sluggish and
slow Of movement, in this respect being
entirely different from the tribe in gen
eral. In its own country the animal
shows more activity, especially in the
dry, hot regions contiguous to the
ella River. In confinement it
has the habits Of young alligator more
than anything else. The interest
which centers in the heloderma lies in
the poison that is supposed. to Turk in
its bite, and perhaps no animal has
given rise to so many weird and wholly
imaginary stories.
The natives and some ignorant whites
suppose that its breath is poisonous.
Others think that to have one touch the
body is a bad sign. The heloderma is
simply a lizard, and the only one
known that can poison other animals
by the bite; a discovery made a few
years ago by some naturalists who were
travelling through the country. The
story was not at first believed, but
several were sent East, where the
poisonous properties were soon demon
strated. A naturalist at the Smith
sonian was bitten, the poison taking
effect SO quickly that he had barely
time to call for help. Small animals
soon died after being bitten, and it was
shown that human beings, under Ger.
tain conditions, might easily die from
the effects Of the bite.
The poison OF the h%eloderma ha.
heen carefully examined by Mesars
Mitchell and Eeichert, the experts
who announce that the physiological
action of the poison is entirely ditferen
from that OF the snakes. The Iattel
destroys life by p~aralyzing the respira
tory center, while the poison of the
heloderma at once attacks and affect.
the heart, paralyzing it.
Among the interesting experiments
that Of injecting the poison subcutane.
ously has been tried. There was nc
local effect, the heart being ut once af.
fected, slowly contracting, the spinal
cord finally becoming paralyzed.
It is probable that the condition Of
the victim or his general health would
have much to do with the ques-
ton of death. If a man was in a poo1
condition and run down he would DOS
sibly die, while a healthy man would
not be seriously troubled.
Specimens sent to Europe were ex-
perimented upon by Sir John Lubbock.
A frog bitten by a lizard died in a few
seconds in commissions. A guinea pig
bitten in the hind leg passed away in
three minutes, and other animals died
equally as quick, creating in the minds
of the observers a decided respect. If
the teeth of the specimen at the Ma
deau House are examined, they will be
found to, have curious assures, and q
further and closer look into the mouth
Of the monster will show at the base of
the grooves small dents from which the
poisonous saliva flows. The heloderma
is an interesting creature, and while
not always sure death, it is we'll to keep
it at a distance and handle it with the
care and respect due its unsavory repu-
tation.
w Found q Giants Bones,
Cornelius Jones, a well-known and
wealthy landowner Of ~Spencerville,
Allen County. in this city on business,
said:
"By the way, there was a remarkable