The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1902-11-08
Venom For Drugs.
from the Sunny South.

In the venom OF the Glla monster new
and powerful remedy has been discovered
by DIR. Charles D. Belden, of Phoenix
Arizona. This venom, a yellow, pasty
fluid, has been used with great success ii
cases of erysipelas, heart failure, paralysis
! locomotor ataxia and kindred disorders
Dr. Robert Boocock, of Long Island City
was pioneer in its adoption, and DIR
Charles K. johnson, Dr. Erastus L Cas-,
and DR.. James E. Lilienthal, urged on BY
DIR. Boocock, have gotten excellent results
from it. There is no living creature more
hideous than the Gila monster; there i!
no poison more deadly than that which i
exudes; and yet this poison bids fair t.
become great remedial agent in certain
baneful diseases that were heretofore
thought to be incurable.
The Gila monster is native of Arizona,
New Mexico and Texas. 1t is fat anG
soft, and about two feet in length. A
kind of bead work, very regular and bril-
liant, covers it in patterns of black and
salmon pink. 1t is sluggish in its habits,
and of mild disposition, but when an
gered or alarmed it fights obstinately 1t
sinks its teeth into an object-into thumb,
cheek or wrist and clings with the
tenacity of crab. And while it clings, il
bites down harder, for its poison lies in a
spongy tissue at the crown of each tooth,
and unless the bitten flesh is brought into
actual contact with this tissue, no infec-
ton can result. Hence the Gila monster
holds and grinds on its victim, determined
to sink the teeth so deep that the poison
oozing sponges at their base may be rubbed
and squeezed upon the flesh.
DIR. Belden, of Phoenix, caught Gila
monster recently in net. He knew OF
the curative virtues of the venom of the
rattlesnake and of the fer de lance, and
he did not see why the venom of the ella
monster should not have curative virtue
also. He had studied its effect upon per-
sons who had been bitten; he had noted
how remarkably like paralysis agitans or
locomotor ataxia their condition was.
Hence he thought that in diseases of the
nature Of paralysis agitans or locomotor
ataxia the poison might prove to be val
liable remedy. The event has shown him
to have been correct in his theory, and
there are already several hundred persons
who have cause to thank DIR. Belden for
the relief which the new drug has brought
to them.
The physician sent east to his druggist
vial of the venom. 1t was a yellow
fluid of the thickness of molasses. He
had obtained it by putting in his monster S
mouth fragment of thick glass. The
reptile had bitten hard upon the glass,
and the venom had been deposited in five
or SIX thick drops. In forwarding it DIR.
Belden suggested that it be prepared in
drug form and tried by the physicians.
His letter said:
at seems to me that it (the poison
differs in so many points from all present
known venoms that it is worth our having.
In the first place it is alkaline, and all
other poisons of reptiles are acid Second,
its effect is not always sudden, but lasting
causing sickness for months, and death
even after year. -
The drug firm to which the poison was
sent has branches in ten cities. 1t keeps
in touch with such physicians as are of an
experimental turn, and sends to them for
testing all the new remedial ideas that 1t
receives DIR. Boocock, of Long Island
City, received a bottle of the venom much
diluted, and this DIR. Boocock proceeded
to try upon himself For it is pretty
generally recognized rule of medicine that
the aches and pains which drug produces
in well person are those which it will dis
pei in a sick person; and DR.. Boocock,
therefore, was wise to test in this way
Heloderma horridus, as the new drug was
called, for he knew that the harm it would
do him would define the harm it would cure
others Of