The San Francisco call., 1896-03-10
A SPIDERS FATAL BITE.
Terrible Death of a Sea Cap.
tain's Six.Month.Old
Daughter.
Little Catherine Lund While Asleer
Falls a Victim to Venomous
Insect.

Little Catherine Lund, an infant daugh-
ter of Captain anG Mrs. Lund, whose resi-
dence is at 329 Thirteenth street, died on
suit of the attack of a venomous spider
that drove its poisonous fangs into her
left eyelid while she slept.
The child was in good health when it
was put to bed on Friday evening, but
seemed peevish and ill when the mother
took 1t up the next morning. The lid of
the left eye was swollen so that the sight
was almost obscured, and dark brown
mark seemed to be the center of the lrri-
tated spot. Within few hours Mrs. Lund
saw that the entire side of her baby's head
was becoming swollen and, feeling much
alarmed, sent for DR.. Lagan.
The physician examined the child s
head, which by that time was terribly
swollen, and gave it as his opinion that the
wound had been caused by venomous in
sect of some kind. Gangrene had already
set in, and while The doctor did everything
in his power to alleviate the child's suffer
ings he informed Mrs. Lund that the case
was hopeless, as the poison had obtained
such a start that its fatal progress could
not be checked.
Mrs. Lund at once instituted search
for the cause of the child terrible condi-
ton, and from beneath the bed swep: a
big hairy black spider, which Immediately
showed fight. In her anger at the insect
which had inflicted SO much sorrow on
her Mrs. Lund crushed it with one heavy
blow, so that when DR.. Logan tried to
identify it with the venomous spide
known to science he was unable to do so,
and is still uncertain as to what family it
belonged.
By the next morning the baby was in a
stupor, and it was seen that no chance of
its surviving existed. The head on the
left side was swollen until the skin was
tense and the scalp as hard as q board, and
the dark color of the skin testified to the
virulence of the poison. That night,
scarcely forty-e ight hours after the wound
was received, the baby died.
/ DR.. Lagan said last night that the case
was one of the strangest that ever came
under his observation.
"When / was first called" he said,
probably within twelve hours after the
baby was bitten, saw from the extent of
the gangrene that had resulted that there
was little chance of It's surviving.
THE poison injected by the spider must
/ have been of the most virulent kind to
| have made such havoc in so short time.
Of course all the efforts possible were made
to arrest the progress OF the gangrene, but
| they seemed to have little effect, and all l
could do was to alleviate the pain with
applications calculated to reduce the in
| f1ammation.
81 have always been skeptical of the
| poisonous attributes of common spiders
generally, and even know, l think, that
the insect that stung the little one must
have been brought from some foreign
country, and by some strange chance found
it's way into the Lund household. The
progress of the poison was appallingly
rapid, and unless the proper remedies
could have been applied within very few
hours after the bite was inflicted there
could be no doubt as to the result"
Captain Lund, the father of the child
| who was only six months old, is sea-
faring man and is now at sea on a voyage
The mother is nearly distracted with
grief over her little daughters terrible
death and refuses to be comforted.