The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-08

| thus for hours in calm weather.
 There are no cases on record Of re- | cayery after their bite. Most of their victims are Malay and other native 1 fishermen and shore dWellers, and physicians rarely geo to see the victims. | Statistics are not kept in that part of | the world, so it is not possible to as- certain even approximately how many persons are killed each year. But traN- elers know that there is hardly a fIsh- ing village that has not It's tale ol 1 death to tell
 | For time scientists were inclined 10 | the belief that the dealines of the blte was due not to a venom like that Of land snakes, but to some property that caused blood poison as does the bite of many fishes that aren ot poisonous in { themselves. But the case of sailor on the British warship Agerine, coming under the careful observa ton of medi- cal men. proved that the snakes are f directly poisonous, and that they carry l fangs charged with venom just like the l cobra. The Algerine was lying in front of ! Madras when a school Of brightly col 1 ored snakes suddenly rose almost under the keel and began to hunt fish, The sailors caught a big one, measuring about six feet, and drew 1t on deck. l None of them dreamed that the creature was poisonous but 1t snapped at it's captors SO fiercely that luckily | thev feared to touch it until at last young gunner seized it. It turned and bit him in the index finger of the right hand. He instantly cut the serpents head off with his cutlass, and, after ex- amining the bright body for awhile, he gave it to one of his shipmates, who 1 skinned it. The gunner went below and ate his breakfast about half an hour 1 later For some time he felt no pain or discomfort from the bite, and indeed did not give it a second thought, as the flesh had hardly been broken by the 1 fine. needle-like teeth. But he had been | on deck again less than two hours when he suddenly became sick. His pulse began to weaken almost at once, | and finally if became intermittent. still he did not suspect that he was suffer ing from the effects of the bite, and therefore did not even mention to the surgeon who attended him that he had | been bitten.
 | The puDllS or nlH tSCH bNeNii " N and cold precipitation appeared HIS face assumed an expression Of intense anxiety. and the surgeon became con vinced from the symptoms una 'he man was suffering from violent pols- on. He began an investigation anu 1 found the snake A native who nap nened to come on board identified 1t as | being me of the poisonous sea snakes Ry that time the victims throat Ilad becoma paralyzed and the edges of the t,rv wounds were swollen and had be- oun to darken, Soon the swelling eX- tended over his entire right side and his neck and face became spotted ana blotched with dark purple and gray Twenty minutes after the discoioratlon had appeared first, it had spread over | his entire body. Death ended his sur fering four hours after he had been bitten,
 The next case to come under the ob- servation of surgeons also occurred in the mort of Madras The captain of a | merchant vessel was bitten by some uh- 1 known creature while he was bathing' but he paid no attention to it, He dress ed leisurely and went to the house oi
 friend for dinner After it he played
 with the children of his hest and sang songs for the company. Now and then
 latter in the evening, as time passed he noticed prckllng. burniS sensation over his whole body but 1t felt rather | pleasant than otherwise and did not | alarm him in the least. His friends
 took occasion several times to remark that he was looking particularly we'll
 Three hours afterward he returned to | his ship and had barely touched the ! deck before his limbs became unac- 1 countablv stiff and his tongue grew so thick that he could not make himself understood He took some brandy, and
 when that failed his ships doctor pre- scribed some medicine for him. When | this produced no effect Burman sailor suggested that perhaps the captain had
 been bitten by a sea snake, on exam nation the doctor found that the two tiny wounds were angry and purple and he instituted drastic treatment at
 once, but the victim died within q hours after being bitten.
 Near Raine Island, in the Torres
 straits. a young Kanaka, while diving for pearI shells on reef. was bitten in the tOfeHngeT pN d hduttb Siie'hN 'i'' '
 srot LID from the bottom as he plunged
 in and attacked him without provoca- ton He died within AS hours, after having suffered torment.
 In Sigavi Harbor black and white
 banded snake bit a Fortuna Island boy, | who had leaped on submerged rock
 where the crea ture had been lying. The lad jumped into the water at once and
 swan ashore. to be treated by a native
 snake doctor, but he died before morn- ing.
 Sir Joseph Payer and Professor Rus sell permitted q five-foot sea snake to
 bite bird. It died in four minutes. A
 second. bitten by the same snake iin-
 mediately afterward, died in 10 min utes. Another snake killed bird with in seven minutes. Then they leased a
 sea snake till It bit soft-shel turtle
 in the mouth Five minutes afterward
 the turtle began to scratch the bitten
 spot. Sixteen minutes after that it was
 paralyzed completely, and in IA min
 utes more 1t died. A second turtle suc-
 cumbed in 46 minutes. A tree snake
 died in 30 minutes after being bitten,
 and a toad fish was killed within 10 minutes. .....
 The sea snake lives entirely in the open ocean. They do not even ascend I.