The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-14
BITES THAT MAY POISON.
HUMAN TEETH AS WELL AS ANIMAL
SOMETIMES DO so.
eating AnimaIs-Tigers' Bites /
Through the Lungs.

wives a discussion, which has for some
time engaged the attention of correspond
ents of American newspapers dealing with
sport and natural history. Quoting from a
book on ranch life, of which he does not
give the title, he says: The bite of the
small plains polecat he CHE cowboy
dreaded above all things, for he knew that
it was practically certain to result in
hydrophobia and death. Many cowboys
lost their lives in this way, being bitten
by this animal when it had crawled into
their blankets at right. AT the least move
of the sleeper the venomous creature
would bite, and its bite was accounted al
most certainly fatal One United States
army regiment stationed at an Arizona
post, lost thirteen men in one season
through bites of the polecat." This story
is evidently a revival of the curious mud
die of fact and fancy which has produced
the myth current in some parts of Amer
lea of the existence of skunk rabies"
The ''polecat" is not found on the Amer
lean plains, but the story of the skunk
rabies" has fiourished there exceedingly,
and takes The form given above-that the
bite of a healthy skunk produces rabies.
Believers in this story even go so far as
to limit the fatal results Of the bite by
arbitrary lines of latitude, north and
south, of a certain region!
The origin of the story was probably
this, that at some time there was an cpl
demic of rabies among the small carniver-
of Arizona. Such an epidemic is quite
possible for between 1903 and 1897 there
were no less than nine epidemics of rabies
among wild foxes in different parts of Eu
rope and two among cats and some of the
fox epidemicS were very fatal to human
life, as the rabid creatures left the woods
and came into the villages But Pugin
Thornton, writing on the same subject,
properly calls attention TO the serious eff
feels of bites by animals which are not
rabId: Having now been kept to my
room for over a month from the bite of
healthy dog, 1 can personally speak to
the serious after-effects of an animals
bite And during my illness 1 have learn
ed that number of my friends have suf-
fered for weeks together from having been
bitten, sometimes when helping to free
their own animals, which We're wedged I'M
DER a gate, etc. And what is more sur
prlsing to me is that any of us may have
hands crippled for some time, the result
OF bites from a mans teeth. In one case
dragged
against his own front teeth and his hand
was bad for some weeks after"
NO one who has any acquaintance with
cases of wounds inflicted by the bites
even of non-carnivorous animals win
doubt Mr. Thornton's view that the after
effects are not limited to the Injuries
caused by the actual cutting and brnis
ing made by the teeth, though these are
serious enough. His instance of the poi-
sonlng caused accidentally by human
teeth is curious, but not singular. Such
cases were wei known in the DAYS of the
prlze-ring, and Grantley Berkeley mem
lions case in which the risk was so
great that some ruffian of his acquaint-
ance reckoned it among his personal ad-
vantages that no one cared to risk the
chance of cuttig his knuckles against his
lncisors. Dog bites are always dangerous
rms is mainly due, not to poisoning.
though this often results, but to the
trightful wound which any large dog
thoroughly in earnest, can lnf1ict. Human
beings get off lightly in many cases be-
cause as rule a dog only Snaps at
them when irritated and there is as much
difference between a SNAP" and bite
as there is between a flip with the back
of the finger and a knoclldown blow.
Animals, it is known recover from
wounds more easily than men do. Yet
Lord Ebrington states that on Exmoor a
almost never RECEIVERS. The wound is
almost invariably mortal, and the animal
wastes and dies. But when a large dog
loses self-control the injuries inflicted are
fearful. Children are the usual victims
of these brutes. Every year sees one or
two accounts of children crippled for life
by such attacks. Quite recently a case
was reported In which a savage dog lad
been handed over to another person for
sale This creature bit a child so badly
as to MAIN her for life. Thirty-six bites
were inflicted on its poor little body. In
cases which have come under the writer's
notice the bites were always in the leg
-Four deep holes into which a pencil might
be pushed, and a bad hruise, We're the
immediate result followed by intense in
flammation, suppuration and pain.
One of the worst recorded instances of
poisoning from the bite of a non-carnivor-
Gus animal occurred recently at the Zoo.
1t is well lIwon that llamas and guanacos,
in addition to a bad and vicious temper,
have a disgusting habit of splitting at per
sons they dislike. This is nasty enough
but an unlntended experiment shows that
there Is every reason 10 believe that this
saliva is sometimes poisonous. 1t was in
tended to remove male guanaco from its
enclosure, and several persons were occu-
pied in its transfer. The guanaco bit one
of these in the wrist and spat its saliva
on the ear of another. The bite caused
severe blood poisoning, the person injured
being III several months In consequence,
while a young man, one of the keepers,
on whose ear the creatures saliva had fall-
en- had g minor form of blood poisoning
affecting the ear and neck.
Most poisoning caused by bites is, how
ever, probably due to the state of the
creatures teeth. The dog tribe, which
have very wet mouths and wet tongues.
keep their teeth fairly clean, while herbiv-
orous animals do not. A dogs teeth are
nearly always beautifully white, those of
a horse or a camel yellow and dirty. Capt.
Christie, iii some notes on sport in Somali-
land, recently published in Country Life"
states that native cook who served him
had been disabled for two years by a
camel bite received during our former Sou
dan expedition. The work done by the
tongue and saliva in constantly cleaning
the carniVorous animals teeth Is proved TO
some extent by the different results of
being "clawed" and bitten respectively by
the same creature.
Wounds made by the claws of leopards
are poisonous, while those caused bv the
teeth are less frequently septic Sir Sam
uel Baker notes that 1.-The wounds from
the claws of leopard are exceedingly