1883.] Bite of the North American Coral Snakes. 29 
child lingered in great agony until the following morning and died as above stated. 
The snake, as described to me, was about eighteen inches long, and it is a matter of 
doubt with me whether the bite of so smal) a snake would have proved fatal to an 
adult, The year following this unfortunate occurrence I became a resident of Cor- 
pus Christi, and resided for several years within a hundred yards of Mr. Stringer, 
and he, as also many of the citizens, often told me of the sufferings and death of 
that child, and I will here add, that Stringer always contended that the snake did 
not bite the child, but inflicted the fatal wounds with the sting of its tail, and in 
this opinion he was not alone, About two years after this I was ona visit to my 
friend, Capt. R. King, the proprietor of a great stock ranch, Santa Gertrudes, forty 
miles from Corpus Christi. Walking across the court-yard one evening in company 
with Mr. R. Holbien, the book-keeper, I saw in the grass a small coral snake of six- 
teen or eighteen inches in length; I commenced annoying it with my cane to satisfy 
myself as to whether it had a sting or not; Holbien remarked, * be careful, that is 
the same kind of a snake that killed Stringer’s child.” Holbien was living in Corpus 
Christi when the child died. I pinned the snake to the ground with my cane, but 
could not induce Holbien to make close examination, he was afraid of it. My eyesight 
was very defective. I called Mr. Greer, the superintendent of the ranch, who hap- 
pened to be passing at the time, and requested him to notice closely as to whether he 
could see a sting or not; he assured me he could see the sting very plainly ae 
I pressed upon the snake sufficiently hard to cause it to strike with its tail. 
motions of its tail indicated that it was used as a means of defence, tine it had 
a sting or not. I killed the snake and cut off an inch or more of its tail. The fol- 
lowing morning I examined it as closely as I could; I found the terminal tip was 
constituted of bone of extreme hardness—almost flinty, in dividing it I had to force 
e knife through with a hammer. I found in the center a dark substance about 
the size of a hog-bristle attached only at its upper part, about one-half an inch 
from the apex of the tail. This limited examination gave me no MERET results, 
as my sight was defective and I had no magnifying glass to aid me; and notwith- 
standing Mr. Greer’s assertion that he had seen the sting, I came to aS conclusion 
that the black, thread-like matter I had noticed in the center of the bony case was 
probably the caudal terminus of the spinal cord. Since then no Opportunity has 
presented itself to me for further investigation. I believe I have now given you all 
the information I possess relative to the coral snake, and regret that it is out of my 
power to give you anria more satisfactory. I will add that the coral snake, as- 
met with in Southwestern Texas and in Mexico bordering on the Lower Rio 
oe ae Bins pern inches in length ; all that I have seen, with few excep- 
tions, ranged in length from twelve inches to twenty-four. 
In the treatment of the bite of the coral-snake, I would adopt the same course of 
treatment as in case of the rattlesnake bite or that of any other poisonous reptile. I 
have noticed the same train of symptoms follow the sting and bite of the centipede, the 
bite of a diminutive spider found occasionally here and in Mexico, which is fol- 
lowed by an alarming train of symptoms if not soon arrested, and the bite of ee cop- 
perhead, moccasin and rattlesnake. I have seen an infant die in ten hours after be- 
ing stung by a centipede, but have never heard of a death of an adult from the 
same cause, though I have had many come under my notice. When my attention 
has been called in time, I have never failed to cure a snake bite (rattlesnake) with 
Bibron’s mixture, bandaging the limb above the wound, scarifying freely, and bath- 
ing i it for several hours with tincture of iodine, alcoholic paesa being freely ad= 
ministered when the temperature and pulse indicated its use 
