LACTRODECTUS, THE POISONOUS 185 



death may ensue. In most cases, however, the 

 patient recovers after a few days of torture. 

 According to temperament and other condi- 

 tions which may prevail, different persons are 

 affected differently. There are two types of 

 symptoms following the bite: the nervous and 

 the muscular. 



Dr. John C. King, of Banning, California, 

 who has treated an unusual number of patients 

 suffering from this spider's bite, in a paper 

 recently read before his medical society, speaks 

 of the severity of the nervous symptoms as fol- 

 lows: 



"The pain is excruciating, often requiring 

 morphia. It is the type of pain we meet in 

 severe cases of neuritis and angina pectoris. 

 It travels from the part bitten, regardless of 

 situation, toward the heart. The patients often 

 lose self-control, weep, cry out, and become 

 difficult to manage. The nervous symptoms, as 

 pain, twitching, insomnia, and nervous pros- 

 tration, sometimes continue for weeks. I have 

 treated bites inflicted by tarantulas and stings 

 given by scorpions, but in no such instance has 

 the pain compared with that following this 



