98 PUYSIOLOGY AND TOXICOLOGY 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 CROTALUS rOISONING IN MAN. 



Tee cases of Rattlesnake jDoisoning in man have been separated from the rest 

 of this paper, owing to the difficulty of grouping the phenomena of human poison- 

 ing with those observed in animals. This difficulty arose from the imperfect 

 reports of such cases as have been recorded, and from the fact that, in man, the 

 symptoms were possibly modified, in some instances, by the remedies used, and 

 were thus no longer comparable with such as had been seen to exist in animals 

 submitted to no modifying treatment. Some of these objections would, of course, 

 disappear in a collection of cases so large as to enable us distinctly to separate the 

 essential from the induced, or accidental features of the malady. Unfortunately, 

 although I have collected at least fifty cases of Crotalus bite, the most of these 

 scarcely deserve the name of medical reports, and among the whole number I have 

 been able to select but sixteen which were sufficiently rich in details, to be of the 

 slightest value. The numerous gaps in the accompanying table, show but too well 

 the want of full medical statements of the order and character of the symptoms, 

 even in these select cases, and it is humiliating to observe that, of the four jiost- 

 mortem examinations of the lesions in this mode of poisoning, but two were made 

 in this country. 



If, then, in the table of symptoms in man, and in the following remai'ks upon 

 them, such a lack of detail is met with as would disgrace the most ordinary report 

 of " an interesting case," the blame must rest where it belongs, with the physicians 

 of our own country, who have failed thus much in their duty as medical 

 observers. 



It is impossible to review the whole field of observation upon this important sub- 

 ject, without arriving at the conclusion that whatever may be the degree of viru- 

 lence in the poison of different venomous snakes, its mode of affecting the system 

 varies but little, whether the bite be inflicted by the Viper, the Copperhead, the 

 Rattlesnake, or the dreaded, but not more deadly. Cobra. Thus, in each case, we 

 have the local poisoning, the constitutional malady, and the possibility of inexpli- 

 cably rapid death on the one hand, and of a strange zymotic disease upon the other. 

 There may yet remain some room for doubt as to whether the apparent difference 

 in the activity of the venom from various serpents is not due to the quantities 

 formed or stored up in each case, and to unobserved peculiarities in the structure 

 and form of the poison apparatus. However this may be, it is quite certain tliat 

 two cases of rattlesnake poisoning may sometimes differ as much as either one of 

 them will, from a case of Moccasin or Cobra bite. This fact should make us cau- 



