The Savannah morning news., 1902-10-24

unless the bitten flesh Is brought into
actual contact with this tissue no in
lection can result. Hence the ella
monster holds and grinds on it's vic
tim, determined to sink the teeth SO
deep that the poison oozing sponges at
their base may be rubbed and squeez-
ed upon the flesh.
The Phoenix doctor caught a ella
monster in a net, and he sent East to
a druggist vial of the venom. 1t
was a yellow fluid of the thickness of
molasses. He had obtained 1t by putting
in the monsters mouth a fragment of
thick glass. The reptile had bitten
hard upon the glass. and venom had
been deposited in five or six thick
drops.
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
remedies that are received. 1t sent to
Long Island City doctor a bottle OF
the ella venom, much diluted, and
with this the Long Island City physi-
clan experimental upon himself, in or
der to test the Heloderma horridus,
as the new drug was called. For more
than a month he experimental. noting
down all his symptoms. These notes
have recently been published In a med
ical paper. They begin:
when l received the first bottle of
Heloderma horridus took few drops.
and a severe feeling of internal cold
ness, so intense as to cause me to fear
being frozen to death, ensued. I had
some twitches about my head, as II
the blood was hard to get in or out.
"Thre hours later. l have taken an
other dose. A feeling of heat in head
and face. Cold feeling in my legs.
$3.50 p. IN. The pressure and heat
on the top of my head appear like an
Inflammation. The pain caused me to
bore my head deep in my pillow, and
reminded me of cases l have seen OF
cerebro-spinal meningitis"
He continued for a month to take
Heloderma horridus regularly. He
came to resemble exactly a man with
incipient paralysis agitans, or incipi-
ent locomotor ataxia. On the last day
of the test he wrote:
II know 1t looks cowardly to give up
but my family compels me to do some
thing to enable me to keep about This
heart oppression makes me think Of
heart failure. Very weak. / hope it
will wear away and this trembling i'm
prove. fear sometimes that the trem-
bling in my hands may never fully
leave me now"
He was impressed, naturally, with
the power of Heloderma horridus, and
proceeded to use 1t as a remedy. One
of his patients was dying from erysip-
elias. He treated her with the new
drug. and she recovered. he declares. A
man patient, a victim of paralysis,
walked with a staggering gait, and a
course of treatment with Heloderma
horridus cured him completely, ii is
asserted.
A woman, flfty-five years of age, had
suffered for some years from paralysis
the disease had mounted up from her
ankles to her waist. Yet six Weeks
of this treatment, 1t is recorded,
brought her to so fair a degree of
health that she is now taking care of
her house and family.
1t is not difficult to get the ella
monsters venom. The creature is
sluggish, and can easily be seized by
the back of the neck. So held, it is
helpless. Securing rattlesnake venom
is much more dangerous.
Because crotalis is a recognized REM
edy, all handlers of rattlesnakes--the
charmers, the dealers, the keepers of
the snake houses of geological gardens
have a recognized source of income
in the extraction and sale of the VEN
ON. The snake must first be 1assoed.
This is done with a sliding loop fasten-
is passed over the snakes neck, and
is drawn tight by means of a buckle.
Thus the snake is rendered harmless,
unless the hand be pushed recklessly
into it's mouth, and can be carried
about in the lasso with perfect safety
In the procuring of its venom two
men are needed, one to hold the lasso
pole and the snakes wriggling body
the other to hold its head firm and to
press the venom cup into its mouth.
The snake strikes the cup with its
two fangs, leaving therein about a ia
blespoonful of it's poison. This poison
is green, and OF the thickness of mo-
lasses. 1t sells for SIPS a drachm
A rattlesnake that Is five or six feet
in length will yield a tablespoonful of
venom two or three times a month. 1t
takes It's poison sacs at least a week
to fill again after they have been emp
tied.
They who make a business of gath
ering snake venom have a way of pro-
curing that of the RATHER even when
the snake is unwilling to yield it up
They do this by pressing a certain
between the ear and the eye,
the poison sac opens, and
the poison squirts out through the hol-