The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-09-20
TRUTH ABOUT SNAKES
The Rattler's Bite Is Not So Deadly
AS Reported

rs nCpOIhCd
Romance revels in the peril OF the
unknown. Tapped about with the
of civilization, the mod
ern citizen muses. relishingly, like a
child beguiling himself with ogre
ia es, upon the terrors which lie just
beyond his ken. Avoid for sensat-
ion he peoples the remoteness or
forest and mountain with malign and
destructive creatures whence has
grown up an extensive and astonish-
ing literature of snake and insect
poison lore.
Deadly" is the master word Of the
cult. The rattlesnake is deadly
The copperhead and moccasin are
deadly" SO is the wholly mythical
puff adder In hardly less degree Is
the tarantula deadly" while varying
lethal capacities are ascribed to the
centipede, the scorpion. the kissing
bug and sundry other forms OF insect
life. The whole matter is based upon
the slenderest foundations, don't
mean by this that these ill-famed
species are wholly innocuous. 1t
would be highly inadvisable to snatch
a kiss from a copperhead or to stroke
a tarantulas fur the wrong way. But
one could do it and live to boast of
the achievement Pseudoscience to
the contrary Notwithstanding, there
is no living thing within the bour-
diaries of the United States Of Amer
lea whose bite or sting is sure death
or with one possible exception even
probable death.
There are FIVE varieties of venom
Gus serpents in this country; three
OF them Crotalids and two belonging
to the Flaps family. The Flaps are
rather rare. The Crotalids (ratt'e-
snake moccasin, and copperhead) are
common. and of the widest geograph-
ical distribution. Yet. on the basic
of actual evidence the amazing fact
stands out that only about eighty
persons so far as is ascertainable
have ever died from snake bite in the
United States.
Estimates vary as TO the proportion
OF deaths to bites. Prentiss Wilson
believes that something over ten pei
cent of all persons bitten by venom
Gus snakes in the United States die
AS to how many Of these succumb moi
to the venom. but to the misdlrectec
efforts OF misguided friends at treat
ment-an extremely important differ
entiation-he lacks the data upor
which to base reckoning. S. Well
Mitchell's figures indicate 81 pei
cent mortality for rattlesnake bite
This would make the venom about al
dangerous as the toxin of typhoid
fever. which is not generally regard
ed as a necessarily deadly" disease
Other writer's go as high as flfteei
per cent for the RAFT esnake and al
low as one per cent for the copper
head
All general estimates seem to M
to leave one basic element out o
consideration-the unnoted, nonfata
snake bites. That a bite resulting II
death will eventually get itself re
ported Is reasonably certain. On tn
other hand | am satisfied from talk
ing with plantation owners In tn
South. with ranchmen in the West
and with woodsmen and hunters al
over the country. that, In the remote
regions, many instances OF poisonin
by copperheads and the smaller RAJ
tlesnakes never attain the dignity q
being listed. so insignificant are the
in their effects. Were all these I
be recorded. believe that the morta
ity ratio would fall NOTWITHSTANDING
Hopkins Adams in The Octobe
Eyerybody's.