OBITUARY NOTES. 

 By W. J. Holland. 



GusTAV Adolph Link, Senior. 

 Born May 15, i860, Died August 16, 1916. 



At half past five o'clock on the morning of August 16, 1916, 

 Mr. Gustav A. Link, Sr., died at Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh. 

 He had been bitten about the middle of the afternoon of the day 

 before by a rattlesnake, which six years before he had captured at 

 Ohiopyle Falls, and had since kept as a "pet" in a cage in the 

 Taxidermic Laboratory of the Museum, and which, in spite of the 

 warnings and protests of his superior officers, he had come to 

 handle with more or less familiarity, not unmingled with contempt. 

 He had successfully administered remedies on two occasions to 

 associates when they had been bitten by venomous snakes, and had 

 treated himself with success in the past, when bitten, and in con- 

 versation used to make light of injuries of this sort. For many 

 years he had made it a practice to carry the necessary antidotes 

 in his vest-pocket, but for some months before the accident he had 

 neglected to do so. He was bitten on August 15, while he was 

 talking to a company of students from the University of Pitts- 

 burgh, who had been given permission to visit the Taxidermic 

 Laboratory. The snake, which he had been handling with his 

 accustomed fearlessness, as he was putting it back into its cage, 

 struck him upon the index finger of the right hand. One of the 

 students called attention to a drop of blood upon Mr. Link's 

 finger, and asked him if he had not been bitten. He evaded the 

 question, and stated that he had scratched his finger. He con- 

 tinued to talk to the boys for fully half an hour afterwards, and 

 only after they had withdrawn did he admit to his associates in 

 the laboratory that he had been bitten. Every efifort was made at 

 once to arrest and counteract the effects of the poison. A ligature 



