Arizona weekly citizen., 1890-05-17
The Gila Monster.
(Eel, derma suspect1m,l

In view of the accident which hap pened a few days ago to Hon. Walter L.. Vail, through the bite of Gila Mon
 ster, we publish to-day an extract of a
 paper written by our townsman, John
 A. Spring, and published in the April I number of Chambers Journal London
 and Edinburgh, relative to the veno-
 nous nature of this mysterious lizard.
 Lack of space forbids us to reproduce l the whole article. "The long debated question as to the venomous nature of the Gila Monster which the scientists have named Helo- derma horridum, was brought up at a late meeting of the College!of Physicians at Philadelphia. Drs. Mitchell and Reich art had on hand live, vigorous speci mems of the lizard. Dr. Mitchell caused one to attack the edge of a dish, and some of the saliva was caught in a watch-glass. This was first tested. The venom of poisonous reptiles IS acid, but this was alkaline. 4 minute quantity was then injected into live pigeon
 which died in less than nine minutes. Other experiments were tried, which demonstrated the dangerous character of the poison. According to these learned doctors, a rattlesnake's poison is a mere bagatelle in comparison"
 A few years ago the following we'll authenticated fact occurred in the Huachuca mountains. 4 woodcutter who had laid down In complete health to sleep, wrapped up in his blanket, failed to arise in the morning when his co-laborers called him. Upon uncover ing him they found him. m'stone-dead, and near his body Gila Monster, which, in | the hustle and confusion of the moment, ] made good his escape. As the body of | the man bore no marks of bite or other | wounds, we must suppose that his | death was caused by the mere exhala- tion of the lizard.
 Near Nagdalena, Sonora, a man was hunting rabbits with dog. The latter | inserted his snout into a rabbit hole, but immediately retreated. uttering fearful i howls, while he was trying to shake of a l Gila Monster, which had fastened It's | teeth into the dogs nose, and, although | snarling and splitting without interrup- l tion, could nor be made to let 20 it's l hold till 1t was killed, and even then its i jaws had to be forced apart with an iron l rod. The dog very soon began to act | strangely, and showed something like | the same systems as horse does when | suffering from blind staggers;" but | soon began turning around itself around | in a circle, and in about twenty minutes l fell down dead. The same actions be- ! fore death were observed in mule, only | this animal was bitten in hind leg, and l lived for several days.
 4 young miner while prospecting was | bitten just above the shoe. Although | previously in the best of health, he at | once began to lose flesh, became melan i choly, and died in a few months in the | manner of those who succumb to what | in Germany is called the galloping con- sumption.
 Many similar cases might be enumer- ated but suffice it to say, that among the | natives who have an abiect fear of this | lizard, the universal belief is that the | spittle or saliva, and even the mere 1 breath and exhalation of the the | animal in an excited Gtato is deadly | poison.
 Where this deadly venom is really b. cated, and by what process Of nature 1t | is produced, remains an open question. When I directed the first He oderma, 1 found, to my great surprise, that not withstanding the evident outer resem- blance to that of the rattlesnake, there were no fangs. no venom bladders, no visible receptacle for venom; and fur thermore, that whereas the jaws of ven- omous snakes ars simply held in position by 6 number of elastic sklns, which allow their threats to stretch to great extent, and thus enable them to swallow bodies of much greater circumference than themselves, the jaws of the Heloderma are we'll locked or hinged like those of the Mammalia, and contain two rows of very sharp teeth on each side, those of tho upper jaw being considerably longer than the lower.
 The vitality of the Gila Monster IS something wonderful, aye, incredible; it will not die by drowning, nor by stran- gulation nor by laceration; still it has one soft spot. where moderate, short | knock with hard substance will cause instant death. This spot.is on the | back part of the skull, where the latter joins the vertebrae. One should always | be careful to ascertain positively the | death of the animal before attempting | to handle it, for its aptitude of feigning l death is as great as its vitality.
 JOHN 4. STRUNG.