Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-04-24
BITTEN BY A NEVILL0
ONE OF THE TERRoRS OF LIFE ON
THE ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC.

A Lizard From Whose Deadly Poison
Only One Man Is known to Have
RccOvered-The Treatment "hich
Saved Him From Death.
81 guess 1 am the only living man
that has been bitten by the neville,
venOmous lizard of the isthmus of
Tehuantepec," said William W. Gloon,
New Yorker with Central American
experiences. This lizard is of the ella
monster family and is horrid looking
reptile of a notified liver color and
is from six to ten inches long. Its bite
is deadly, aud, as l said, / am the only
person known who has lived after be-
ing bitten. 1t was Il case of nip and
tuck, though. and l didn't get over it
for two months or more.
"The brute bit me out of pure malice,
for | wasn't doing n thing to it. l had
q coffee plantation down on the 18TH
mus several years ago and just be-
fore the hot season began, which was
in March, | had as my guest DR.. Fer
gus Macdonald of the Smithsonian
institution, who was in that country in
the interest of science. While he was
with me we received an invitation TO
visit the great plantation of DIR. Pedro
ArguilleS. one of the most prominent
men of that country, and we went to
his hacienda near Minititlan- The
ladies of the family had all gone to
Mexico City, and as the weather was
hot we men loafed around in our py-
jamas, the upper garment of which is
a big sleeved affair called Il camisa.
zone day Dr. Macdonald and 1 had
adjourned to the patio or court of the
building, and while 1 lay in the grass
talking to him he was busy greasing
and putting into shape his guns and
revolvers. He was six or eight feet
away from me, and / was lying with
my head propped up on my arm, from
which the sleeve had slipped. leaving 1t
exposed to the elbow, which rested on
the grass. OF course neither of us was
thinking about reptiles or other dan
gers right there in the court of the
building. Suddenly, as 1 talked, the
doctor threw his hand up in warning,
and i knew that whatever it was he
saw there was danger in my moving,
and l must keep still. So / kept as
steady as l could, and then felt some
thing go up my arm toward my head
and stop near my wrist.
II couldn't see what it was, but /
knew something about tropical reptiles
and 1 kept perfectly quiet while the
doctor caught up one of his revolvers
and threw a couple of cartridges into
it. He aimed across my body and fired,
and as / jumped to my feet a neville
at least seven inches long fell writing
to the ground, shot through the head.
The bullet had gone on into my arm
and came out at the elbow and l was
bleeding. Between the bullet marks,
though, were the fang marks where the
neville had stuck its teeth into my arm,
and told the doctor I thought it had
got me. As soon as he saw it he gave
me some kind of a hypodermic injec-
ton in the left leg. the right arm hay
ing been bitten, and at once took his
knife and slashed me across the fang
marks. Into the wounds of my arm
he poured n bottle of concentrated
ammonia. Almost instantly after 1
had been bitten 1 began to grow dizzy
and to see what seemed to me to be
clouds of light smoke, and when the
ammonia struck me l ,keeled over in a
dead faint.
Five days later l awoke in a mud
bath by the riverside, my body twice
it's normal size and my tongue sticking
out of my mouth. They had carried
me there as soon as l tainted, and
night and day my guide and his daugh
ter had been watching by me, with
fires at night TO keep off the animals
from the jungle. Every - hours my
arm was lifted from the mud and
cleansed, and on these occasions it was
always found to he of green color.
AS soon as L returned to consciousness
l was carried to the house and put to
bed, and there for two weeks L re-
manned and then went down to the
coast and up to the well known hot
springs, where 1 was treated for two
months until every bit of the venom
had left my body. During it all 1 suf-
fered no pain, nor have 1 ever felt the
slightest Inconvenience since. What
effect the bullet wound in the arm had
1 don't know. Possibly the blood that
came from the bullet wounds saved
me. Anyhow something happened that
never happened to any other person
bitten by a neville, or L wouldn't be
here to tell the story"
Mr. Gloon barred his arm for the ben
eft of the listeners, and if an arm ever
looked as IL it had been through hard
campaign that one did. 1t was SCARED
as If burnt with hot irons and covered
from the elbow down with all kinds of
peculiarly shaped notified spots of
about the same color as the lizard
New York Sun.