The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-09-07
DANGERS FROM BITES.
Human Teeth as Well as Animal Some
times Poison.
London Spectator.

H0St reVlveS 8 QlSCuSSlOu WAicA AoS
for some time engaged the attention
4 Of correspondents of American news
papers dealing with sport and natural
history. Quoting from book on
ranch life, Of which he does not give
the title, he says: "The bite of the
small plains polecat he (the 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 crawleel into their blankets at
night. At the, least move of the
sleeper the venomous creature would
bite, and its bite was accounted almost
certainly fatal. One United States
regiment stationed at an Arizona post
lost thirteen men in one season
through the bites Of the polecat." :"
This story is evidently revival Of
the muddle Of fact and fancy which
has produced the myth current in
some parts Of America of the existence
Of " skunk rabies The sspolecat" is
not found ON the American plains;.
but the story Of the ''slsunk rabies"
has hourished there exceedingly, and
takes the form given above-that the
bite Of a healthy skunk produces
rabies. Believers in this story even
60 so far as tolimit the fatal results
Of the bite by arbitrary lines Of latitude,
north and south of a certain region!
RABIES AMONG SMALL cARNIvoRA.
The origin of the story was prob
ably this, that at some time there was
an epidemic Of rabies among the small
carniiyora Of Arizona. Such an cpl
dsmic is quite possible, for between
1903 and 1887 there were no less than
nine epidemics Of rabies among wild
foxes in different parts Of Europe, 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, very properly calls at
tention TO the serious effects Of bites
/ By animals which are not rabid ::
Having now been kept to my room
{ for over a month from the bite Of a
healthy dog, I can personally speak to
the serious after-afects Of an animals s
bite. And during my illness I have
learned that a number Of my friends
have suffered for weeks together from
having been bitten, sometimes when
helping to free their own animals,
which were wedged under gate, etc.
And what is more surprising to me is
that any Of US may have hands Grip
pied for some time, the result of bites
from q mans teeth. In one case q
friend violently dragged his hand
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
will doubt Mr.. Thornton's view that
the after-afects are not limited to the
injuries caused by the actual cutting
and bruising made by the teeth,
though these are serious enough. His
instance Of the poisoning caused acci-
dentally by human teeth is curious,
but not singular. Such cases were
well known in the days Of the prize
ring; and Grantley Berkeley mentions
case in which the risk was so great
that some rufian Of his acquaintance
reckoned it among his personal advan-
tages that no one cared to risk che
chance Of cutting his knuckies against
his incisors. Dog bites are always
dangerous. This is mainly due, not
to poisoning, though this often re-
suits, but to the frightful wound
which any large dog, thoroughly in
earnest, can infict. Human beings
get OFF lightly in many cases, because,
as rule, dog only "snaps'' at them
when irritated, and there is as much
difference between a 'ssnap' and a
bite as there is between a flip with
the back Of the fingers and knock
down blow.
DOG BITES.
Animals, it is known, recover from
wounds more easily than men do. Yet
Lord Ebrington states that on Exmoor
deer bitten by one of the large
hounds almost never recovers. The
wound is almost invariably mortal,
and the animal wastes and dies. But
when large dog loses self-control the
injuries inflicted are fearful. Chill
dren are the usual victims Of these
I.rkos Evarv voor oaae ono or twn