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XXXVIII. The Case of a Man who died in consequence of 

 the Bile of a Rattlesnake : with an Account of the Ef- 

 fects produced by the Poison. By Everard Home, 

 Esq. F.R.S* 



Opportunities of tracing the symptoms produced by 

 the bite of' poisonous snakes, and ascertaining the local 

 effects on the human body when the bite proves fatal, are 

 of such rare occurrence, that no well described case of this 

 kind is to be met with in any of the records that I have 

 examined. I am therefore induced to lay before this So- 

 ciety the following account, with the view of elucidating 

 this subject, in which the interests of humanity are so 

 deeply concerned. 



Thomas Soper, 26 years of age, of a spare habit, on the 

 17th of October 180Q, went into the room in which two 

 healthy rattle-snakes, brought from America in the pre- 

 ceding summer, were exhibited. He teased one of them 

 with the end of a foot rule, but could not induce the snake 

 to bite it, and on the rule dropping out of his hand, he 

 opened the door of the cage to take it out : the snake im- 

 mediately darted at the hand, and bit it twice in succession* 

 making two wounds on the back part of the first phalanx 

 of the thumb, and two on the side of the second joint of 

 the fore finger. The snake is between four and five feet 

 long, and when much irritated bites the object twice, which 

 1 believe snakes do not usually do. 



The bite took place at half past two o'clock. He went 

 immediately to Mr. Hanbury, a chemist in the neighbour- 

 hood. There was at that time no swelling on the hand^ 

 and the man was so incoherent in his language and be- 

 haviour, that Mr. Hanbury considered him to be in a state 

 of intoxication^ and gave him a dose of jalap to take off 

 the effects of the liquor, and made some slight application 

 to the bites. It appeared on inquiry, that the man had 

 been drinking, but that before he was bitten there was no- 

 thing unusual in his behaviour. After leaving Mr. Han- 

 bury, the hand began to swell ; which alarmed him, and he 

 went to St. George's hospital. He arrived there at three 

 o'clock. The wristband of his shirt had been unloosed, 

 and the swelling had extended half way up the forearm be- 

 fore his admission. The skin on the back of his hand was 

 very tense, and the part very painful. At four o'clock the 



* From the Philosophical Transactions for 181Q, Part I. 



Vol. 36. No. 149. Sept. 1 8 10. O swelling 



