The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-12
BITTEN BY RATHER.
A Railroad Workman Graphically
Describes His Sensations.

Describes His Sensations.
From the Portland Oregonian
An unusually interesting case is that Of
John Kelleher of Grants Pass. now IN
der treatment for rattlesnake bite at IN,
Good Samaritan hospital. The patient is
4 tall, brawny son OF Erin, with muscles
like iron and frame of steel: but the
sharp pointed faugs of Venomous rat
tier thrust into his thumb laid him low
and brought him near TO death. In some
portions OF the United States rattle
snake bites are not Of uncommon occur
renee, but in Oregon, where the advance
OF civilization has driven the loath-
some reptiles back into the mountains,
they are rare enough TO be interesting.
ears ago rattlers were numerous all
through the Willamette valley, even in
the vicinity of Portland Now they are
found only in secluded places in the
mountains, and then almost invaribly in
communities, lodged on shelving rocks,
where they lie Tor hours in the not sun,
or, during the winter months in crevices
aud holes The mountains in Southern
Oregon are still infested with them in
places, but in the northern portion OF the
state their only abiding place at the
present time is the hills of Polk county,
with, perhaps, few in other portions
1t was Southern Oregon RATHER that
laid helleher low. He is a section hand
in the employ of the Southern Pacific
Company, and during the past six weeks
has been helping TO keep the track in re
pair between Grants Pass and Ashland.
lie was bitten by the snake last Monday
afternoon while wedding the track near
West rark Station, about two miles from
Grants Pass, and did not go under sur
geon's care at the hospital here unit
Wednesday evening. " hen seen in his
cot at the hospital kelleher was GONZALES
cent. He was glad to see a visitor, and,
while the nurse skillfully changed the
bandage on his swollen right arm, he told
the story of his adventure
you see, it came so quickly and unex-
pected that at first | was almost para
lyzed with fear" he said land DIDN'T
know what to do. Two of us were work
ing on the track, pulling weeds and
| thinking not at all of snakes, when sud
denly, as l reached down toward the
roots of big ragweed / felt a sharp,
| singing pain in my thumb. as if a needle
| point had been run into me, only ten
| times worse. OF course, l Jumped and
| yelled, and then looked down to see what
stuck me. 1t didn't take me long to find
out. The snake lay coiled under the rail
and between the ties. His head was
thrown back and his fangs were sticking
| out, as If ready TO strike again. He
never wagged his tail or shook his rat
| ties once. OF course, yelled again that
was bitten by RATHER My partner
grabbed stick and killed the reptile,
which was only about eighteen inches
| long. We didn't stop to count the rat
ties, but sat down and commenced to
try to suck the poison out Of my thumb,
81 read in paper not long ago of a per-
son being bitten by RATHER, and how
the wound was treated. The snake bit
me near the end of the thumb, on the in
side, and / tell you its fangs sunk right in
I to- the bone. was very painful fFem
the start l could hardly describe how l
felt, for knew the result might be fatal
| and was badly scared 1t was different
from bee sting, which l have often err
dured. My arm commenced TO swell RICH Z
away. l felt weak and dizzy. and u o
pain was awful Well, after / thought 1
had sucked the poison out, my partner
| took me TO the section house and gave me
| lot of whisky to drink. 1t took an
| awful lot of it to make me stagger, and
| did not once lose my senses entirely
After had swallowed several bottles of
whisky and brandy, they took me to
| Roseburg and placed me on a train for
| Portland My arm kept on swelling until
| 1T was several inches in diameter and
very painful. When reached here Wed
nesday evening | was drunk, and didn't
care Just what happened to me. Well, an
officer put me in carriage and brought
me out here.
"pm all right now, guess, although
| they tell me l won't be out for two or
three days. My arm don't pain me any
more. That was my first experience with
rattlesnakes, and l hope it will be the
! last. I've killed many of them in the
| Rocky Mountains, but never thought one
! could come so near to killing me-
kelleher's arm is still badly swollen
| and discolOred, but the nurse stated that
it is rapidly receding to its normal size.
/ The spot on the thumb where the veno-
nous fangS Of the snake entered is not
| discolored, and person might easily mis-
take it for the wound left by a penknife
! point, Norris the hand swollen--only the
! tieshy portion of the arm.
| House Surgeon Watts, who has had the
! immediate care of the patient, stated
that, owing TO the age of the wound moth
! ing had been done for it except TO apply
| cold water bor0cic bandages, with oiled
| gauze coverings. While such treatment
! had been administered locally, the patient
was stimulated by internal draughts of
! whisky and brandy. In Kelleher's case
! it was taken for granted that the poison
| had already spread through the system
| The only thing to do was to stimulate the
patient until the poison was absorbed by
| the system and thrown off in the usual
manner. Had Kelleher not been thor
| oughly conversant with the most gen
orally accepted manner of treatment for
bites his health would have been as moth
ing under the influence of so powerful a
poison.