Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-10-19
A PLAGUE OF FEAR
VAGUE Terrors Bar Lots of Folks
From Living on the Land.N
DREAD SNAKES AND INSECTS.

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Prefer Crowded cities-The Truth
About Animal Bites and Poisons.
Fears of injury and Eel death from
snake bite, terror occasioned by dangers
imaginary and unseen, keep many nery-
GUS people from living on the land, and
these senseless fears play a larger part
than most people imagine in keeping
people huddled in apartment houses,
crowded into towns and cities. And
the cost of living scars and scars.
Snake and insect poisoning ~terrorizes
millions of well meaning men and wom-
EN-, when, as a matter of fact, dam
ger from falling while running the
lawn move is much more real. Fear
seems to become a obsession, and the
word deadly creeps into conversation
at every verse end. The rattlesnake is
deadly" The copperhead and moe
casin 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 kiss
ing bug and sundry other forms OF in
sect life. Pseudo science to the con-
trary Notwithstanding, there is no liy-
ing thing within the boundaries of the
United States of America whose bite or
sting is sure death or with n posi-
BILE exception) even probable death.
There are five varieties of venomous
serpents In the country, three of them
Crotalids and two belonging to the
elaps family. The elaps are rare. The
crotalids (rattlesnake. moccasin and
copperhead) are common and of the
widest geographical distribution. Yet,
on the basis of actual evidence, the
amazing fact stands out that only
about eighty persons, so far as is ascer-
tainable, have ever died from snake
bites in the United States.
Be 1t remembered that death follow
ing snake bite is not necessarily the
same thing as death from snake bite.
Error in treatment plays no small part
in vitiating the statistics. For "error'
read whisky" Whoever is primarily
responsible for the hoary superstition
that liquor in huge doses Is useful In
snake poisoning has many a life to an
swer for. A whole bottle of raw whis-
ky forced down the throat of a man I'M
accustomed to alcohol is pretty likely
to kill him and is absolutely certain to
cause grave poisoning.
Fully as much terror attaches, in the
country districts, to the puff adder or
sand viper as to the rattlesnake or cop
perhead. This is a suggestive bit Of
superstition, since there's no such thing
as an adder or viper on the western
hemisphere and never has been one,
unless it came carefully picked in a
jar. What passes for the supposedly
deadly reptile is the common hog nosed
or bull snake. 1t is about as dangerous
as an Infatuated rabbit. But it puts up
n of the best bluffs" known to nat
ural history.
Diseased imagination could invent no
creature more horrifc of appearance
than the tarantula. Its bristling and
hostile aspect, the swift ferocity of its
rush, it's great size and its enthusiastic
preference for combat as against flight
are sufficient to account for the fear
and respect in which it is generally
held. But, though several species of
the huge spider are native in the United
States and others frequently drop out
of banana punches from South and
Central America, to the discontinue of
the unsuspecting grocer, no authentic
instance of death from tarantula poi
son in this country is obtainable.
In some sections of the country the
spider hysteria prevails. People SILVER
every time they see a spider. Yet in
all the United States there is known but
one poisonous spider. Strangely enough,
the one dangerous spider on the
American continent is small, obscure
and practically unknown. L%atrodectus
mactans is its scientific name. It is
about the size of a large pea, black,
with a red spot on the back-a useful
danger signal-and spins a small web
in outhouses or around woodpiles. But
few specimens have V e been identi-
fed in this country.
The only insect which really kills is
the mosquito, yet less fear is expressed
about its activities than about any 9TH
er poison carrying insect or snake.
Compared with the mosquito as q real
menace, all the combined brood of
snakes, scorpions, centipedes, tarantu-
las and other pet bugaboos of u child
ish romanticism are utterly negligible
are as Pigments to reality, as shadow
to substance.
A clear understanding of these popu-
lar fears and superstitions would aid
greatly in giving assurance of safety
to the man or oma who would till
the soil, who would work in the open
fields, who would live in the country
Los Angeles Times.
A LOST Friend.
I'm up against it. 1 like Brown
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