The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-07

Injuries lnntcteu DE- the OurnA-
vOra-FOrce with which Beasts
Work Their Jaw MuScIes--Tigers
Teeth Driven Through Mems
Lungs.
From the London Spectator
A cores ondent OF The Mornns Post
reyIves a discussion which has for some
time engaged the attention Of correspond
ents of American newspapers 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 0he cowboy,
dreaded above all things, for he knew that
it was practically certain to result in by
drophobia and death. Many cowboys lost
their lives in this way, being bitten by
the animal when il had crawled into their
blankets at night At the least move of
the sleeper the veuomous creature would
bite. and its bite was accounted almost
certainly fatal One United States army
regiment stationed al an Arizona post
lost thirteen men in one season through
bites Of the polecat." This story is evil
IDENTIFY a revival of the curious muddle
OF fact and fancy which has produced
the myth current in some parts of Ameri-
ca Of the existence of skunk rabies"
The 'polecat' is not found on the Amer
| lean plains; but the story of the skunk
rabies has flour shed there exceedingly,
and takes the form given above-that the
| bite of d 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 certin region!
The origin of the story was probably
this, that at some time there was an
epidemic of rabies among the small car
nivora of Arizona. Such an epidemic is
quite possible, for between 1903 and 1887
there We're 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 Great
ures left the woods and came into the viii
lagos. 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,
1 can personally speak to the serious af-
! ter-effects of an animals bite And dur
ing my illness L have learned that num-
Der Of my friends have suffered for weeks
together from having been bitten some
| times, when helping to free their own an
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 a mans teeth. In one case a 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.. Thorntons view that the after
! effects are not limited TO the injuries caus-
| ed by the actual cutting and bruising
made by the teeth though these Are Sc
| rious enough. His instance of the pois-
| oning caused accidentally by human
! teeth is curious, but not singular. Such
! cases were well known in the days of the
| prize ring; and Grantley Berkeley men,
! tons a 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 cutting his knuckles against his
! incisors. Dog bites are always danger
! Gus. This is mainly due, not to poisoning,
though this often results, but to the
| frightful wound which any large dog,
| thoroughly in earnest, can inhict. Human
beings get off lightly in many cases, be-
| cause as a rule, a dog only Snaps" at
them when irritated and there is as much
difference between a snap and a bite
as there is between fiillip with the back
of the fingers and a knockdown blow.
Animals 1t is known, recover from
wounds more easily than men do. Yet
Lord Burlington states that on Exmoor a
deer bitten by one of the large hounds
almost never RECEIVERS. The wound is al
most 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 had
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 it's poor little body In
cases which have come under the writ
er's notice the bites were always in the
leg. Four deep holes into which a pen
Gil might be pushed, and bad bruise
were the immediate result followed by
intense Inflammation, suppuration, and
pain.
One of the worst recorded Instances of
poisoning from the bite of non-carnivo-
rous animal occurred recently at the Zoo
1t is well known that llamas and guam
acos, in addition TO a bad and vicious
temper, have a disgusting habit of splitting
at persons they dislike. This is nasty
enough. but an unintended experiment
shows that there is every reason to be-
lieve that his saliva is sometimes poison
Gus. It was intended to remove a male
guanaco from its nclosure, and several
persons were occupied in its transfer. The
guanoco bit one of these in the wrist and
spat it's saliva on the ear of another. The
bite caused severe blood poisoning in con-
sequence, while a young man, one of the
keepers, on whose ear the creatures
saliva had fallen, had a minor form of
notwithstanding 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 her
| bivorous animals do not. A dogs teeth
are nearly always beautifully white those
of a horse or a camel yellow and dirty.
Capt Christie, in some notes on sport in
somaliland. recently published in Country
Life, states that native cook who serv-
ed him had been disabled for two years