Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1911-01-27
"RED SPOT" is DEAyLY
TINY SPIDER is MORE DANGER
Gus THAN COBRA.
rs Found Lurking in WoodpiIes and
Its Poison Is Said to Be the Most
VlruIent and Powerful Secreted b,
Any Living Creature.

The poison of cobras and copper
heads is known to be deadly enough
TO NIL the popular mind with horror
though the horror is somewhat niiti
gated by the remoteness of the dan
ger from the common walks of life
But now we are given to understand
that this danger is mere moonshine ii
comparison with greater one thai
may be said to find place in every
home.
SO far as is known, its poison Is
the most virulent and powerful, droI
for drop. secreted by any living crea
ture." This is the language OF liv
ing naturalist, Mr.. Samuel Hopkins
Adams, who is speaking of a common
domestic spider found all over the
United States, lurking around every
woodpile and clubhouse. 1t varies in
size from that of large pea to a max
imum of half an inch in length, black
In Its body, bearing ever a red spot
upon its back, most useful danger
signal
Cobra virus, in the minute quantity
which the Latrodectus' glands con.
tain,' remarks the same writer
would probably have no appreciable
effect upon man, whereas the tiny spi.
der's venom, in the volume injected by
the cobra's stroke, would slay a herd
OF elephants. Happily, the red
spots fangs being small and weak,
can with difficulty penetrate the skin,
and are able to inject venom in dan.
gerous quantity only when the bite is
inflicted upon some tender-skinned por.
ton of the body. Nevertheless fatal,
ties consequent upon the bite of this
insect sufficiently well attested to
take rank as established scientific
facts"
On a farm near Greensboro N. c.,
so Mr. Adams tells us, negro, in
hauling firewood, brushed at something
crawling upon his neck and felt a
sharp, stinging sensation 1t was the
black spider with the red spot This
was at $3.50 a, M, and before II at
night the man was dead. There was
no swelling and no visible puncture,
only small white pimples appeared
about the bitten spot The smarting
soon passed, but In three hours violent
cramps were experienced. At one
o'clock the man had spasms, but two
hours later he returned to his work,
laboring for an hour Then there was
another spasm, followed by state of
coma, which lasted till death ensued
One singular feature was that The left
arm, left breast and the neck ap
peared to turn to stone, they were so
hard.
Cases have been minutely observed
and reported by DR.. Corson of Savan.
nah, Ca, Dr. Bickford and Mr.. Ball OF
California. The last of these de-
scribes his own experience in convul
sions, following quickly upon the bite
of the "red spot" saying: "The pains
in my hip joints, chest and thighs
grew rapidly more violent, until it
seemed that the bones in these parts
of my body were being crushed to
fragments" His illness lasted ten
days, but he recovered
Here we have peril much greater
than from rattlers and puff adders-a
menace to public safety, now guarded
against by all intelligent nations
where it exists, save only our own
Let every woodchopper and every
housewife take warning.
All other American spiders, the au.
thorities declare, constitute only a
trifiing hazard and need not be seri.
ously considered; hut beware of the
black body bearing the ''red spot"
Cases of poisoning by this creature
are by no means rare. The compare.
tive immunity thus far enjoyed by the
public is probably due to the fact that
spiders, as a rule, never attack human
beings unless molested, and then al