The San Francisco call., 1898-10-09

my has retired.
 One of tke few authentic cases of re- covery from the bite of Gila monster is that of Walter H. Vail of Phoenix,
 Ariz., who is one of the best-known
 and wealthiest cattlemen In the Ter ritOry. While MT Vail was engaged In
 a roundup of his cattle in the Gila River region of Arizona in 1890 he took luncheon one day in a chaparral. He went to resaddle his horse after the meal and while picking up a saddle cloth from the hot earth his hand was
 bitten by a Gila monster that had craWled there a moment before. Of course MT. Vail knew instantly that he
 was probably a doomed man. His ranchmen came to his aid at once. The reptile was killed and the jaws were cut away from MT. Vails hand.
 Quicker than 1t takes tC pen these words the mans arm was bound tight at the elbow to check the flow of blood,
 the wound was cut open and strong ammonia was poured in, while very CO., pious draughts of whisky were poured
 down MT. Nails throat. He was put on a horse and accompanied by his cowboys roLe like mad for fifteen miles to the home of a physician in Tucson.
 Several brief stops were made t1 force more liquor down MT. Vail's throat and
 to pour ammonia on the wound in the hand For three weeks MT. Vail lay almost between life and death at the | home of a physician in Tucson. Phy- sicians were summoned for consulta- tion from P-loenix and even from Los Angeles. Everything that money could
 buy or science suggest was done for the patient. He had a strong, vigorous constitution, and in the course of few months he was as well as ever. He is still in the cattle business ir the 1ee- ritory. Every one in the Southwest has heard of the wonderful recovery of Walter Vail fror. the bite of a Gila monster.
 Among the Yuma Indians is a squaw who was bitten by one of the reptiles over thirty years ago. What decoction was given to the woman to save her life or what the army physician at the United States garrison there did for the poor savage Is now now known, but she is pointed out by whites and Indians In the town of Yuma as the only person in that locality that ever survived the poison of the Gila monster. The wo- mans leg which was bitten has shriv- eled away to half the size of the other leg, and the squaw has been semi idiot ever since her accident. For sev- eral years she claimed to be deaf from the effects of the reptiles venom.
 The period of sufferin~ after bite by a Gila monster and before death comes to a victims relief is from twenty minutes to two hours. A surgeon at Fort Apache says he knows of the case of big, strapping Irish private In the army service who was bitten by Q Gila monster while out hunting one day and died in five minutes. A teamster who hauled merchandise to Tombstone in 1893 was picking up mesquite boughs for campfire and unconsciously picked up a Gila monster with the wood. He was bitten in the upper arm and died before his companions could saw the reptiles
 head off and cut the teeth and jaws from the wound. Where the afflicted
 person survives an hour or two after the bite the agony is described as awful to witness.
 The venom of the rattlesnake is ! somewhat numbing in it's first effect,
 and after the first half hour is not so very painful, but the poison of the Gila