OF THE VENOM OF THE RATTLESNAKE. 25 



The study of the complicated mechanism which we have endeavored to explain, 

 will aid us in understanding several points of interest in connection with the bite 

 of the Rattlesnake. 



It must be perfectly apparent that in a sequence of movements so elaborate, it 

 will occasionally happen that, from a foilure in some one of the essential motions, 

 the ultimate purpose of the whole will be interfered with. Thus, it sometimes 

 chances that the serpent miscalculates the distance, and fails from this cause. Or, 

 again, when the object aimed at is very near, the initial force of the blow is 

 lost, and the tooth does not enter; no uncommon occurrence, where the animal 

 struck is an old dog, with a tough skin. Again, if the upper jaw be not elevated 

 sufficiently, the fangs are sometimes driven backwards, by the foi-ce of the for- 

 ward impulse, as they touch the part attacked, and the venom is then apt to escape 

 between the tooth and the covering mucous cloak. Upon one occasion, having 

 allowed a small snake to strike a dog, the former became entangled, owing to the 

 hooked teeth of the lower maxillary bone having caught in the skin. Upon 

 examining the snake closely, the dog being held, I found that the convexity of the 

 fangs lay against the skin, on which were thrown one or two drops of venom. On 

 removing the snake, and inspecting the part struck, I could find no fang wound, 

 although the skin was visibly torn by the smaller teeth. I have seen the Rattle- 

 snake strike with great apparent ferocity, a number of times, when 1 have been 

 unable to discover any fang wound whatsoever; and this has taken place, occa- 

 sionally, with small animals, such as the rabbit, which must have been seriously 

 affected by even a small amount of venom. 



It scarcely ever happens that an animal is bitten, without a part of the injected 

 venom being cast on the skin, near the wound made by the fangs. Tliis wasted 

 material probably escapes from the duct, where it is in apposition with the lower 

 opening of the fang canal, and may be merely that excess of fluid which the fang 

 cannot carry. In some cases, however, it is quite possible that the relations of 

 the fang and the duct are so disturbed, that the venom never enters the tooth at 

 all. It is certainly true, as has been already stated, and as Dr. Wyman has shown, 

 that the fang must be fully erected in order that the duct shall be so firmly held 

 in contact with the fang, as to insure the passage of the venom through this latter 

 organ. 



Finally, it sometimes happens, that the blow is given, the fang enters, and from 

 the quick starting of the animal injured, or from some other interrupting cause, it 

 is withdrawn so soon that the larger portion of the poison is thrown harmless upon 

 the surface near the wound. Under these circumstances, the resulting symptoms 

 are, of course, trifling; and how well such an occurrence would be calculated to 

 deceive the observen, who employed an antidote in a like case, can be readily 

 conceived. 



eyes or look away, the source through which the invohintary start of alarm, or nervousness, is, so to 

 speak, dictated, appears to be cut off, and the intellectual and memorial recognition of the snake's powers 

 is not sufficiently lively to overcome the force of will which is e.xerted to retain the grasp. 

 4 



