EFFECTS OF THE BITE OF A RATTLESNAKE, 219 



IX. 



II f. The Case of a Man, who died in consequence of the 

 Bite of a Rattlesnake ; with an Account of the Effects 

 produced hy the Poison, By Everard Home, Efq. 

 F. R. S* 



VJPPORTUNITIES of tracing the symptoms produced WeMdescribed 

 by the bite of poisonous snakes, and ascertaining the local ^^^^®^ ^^ ^.^''^.^^ 

 effects on the human body when the bite proves fata!, are very rare. 

 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 ex- 

 amined. I am therefore induced to lay before this Society 

 the following account, with the view of elucidating this 

 subject, in which the interests of huii^nity are so deeply 

 concerned. 



Thomas Soper, 2<5 years of age, of a spare habit, on the i^^'an bitten by 

 17th of October I8O9, went into the room in which two 

 healthy rattlesnakes, brought from America in the preceding 

 summer, were exhibited. He teized 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 immediately 

 darted at the hand, and bit it tv;ice in succession, making The snake bit 

 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 4 and 5 feet long, and when 

 much irritated bites the object twice, which I believe snakes 

 do not usually do. 



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

 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 cP/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 nothing 



♦ Abridged from the Phil. Trans, for 1830, p. 75. 



unusual 



