Los Angeles Sunday Times, 
| Tfye Deadly Qila Monster. 
| Scientists Trying to Find 
| Antidote for Its Poison. 
Y 
X a Special Contributor. 
AN 
1 
f 
S CIENTISTS have for years been making an exhaus¬ 
tive study in their efforts to discover some effec¬ 
tive remedy which will act as an antidote to the 
deadly poison of the gila monster, considered the most 
dangerous reptile to human life in the desert regions 
of the Southwest. 
However, up to the present time there is no remedy 
known to science which can be used to save the life of 
a person so unfortunate as to receive a venomous bite 
from this dangerous creature. 
During the past year Prof. William Wetherbee has 
been making a careful scientific study of the reptile, 
conducting his experiments in California and other parts 
of the Southwest, accompanied by Dr. Frank Romain, 
ophiologist. The latter gives the following account of 
their experiments: f 
That the gila monster is the most dangerous creature 
to human life in the desert regions of the Southwest, 
and that there is no remedy known to science which 
will act as an antidote to its poison, is the opinion of 
Prof. William Wetherbee, who for nearly a year has 
been making a scientific study of this reptile in the 
interests of experiments which for some time have been 
prosecuted in California. i 
To prove his assertion that death ensues in almost 
every instance where the poison of the creature enters 
tho human system. Prof. Wetherbee gives the results 
of -his long sojournin the deserts of Arizona and Cali¬ 
fornia, Where during twelve months o“ experiment 
twenty cases came under his notice, all but three-of 
which ended fatally. In proof of his assertion that since 
the thinning out of the Indians the Gila monster is rap¬ 
idly increasing in number, and that it is becoming a 
serious menace to life in those regions, he points out 
that more deaths have occurred from its bite during tho 
last two years than are recorded in the previous five. 
During this time five little children, four women 
went personally among the Hualipis in his efforts to 
secure the antidote. Because of a superstitious belief 
that the remedy, which is also said to be efficacious in 
combating the fatal effects of rattlesnake poison, was 
a direct blessing from their gods, and should be kept 
secret, the Hualipis refused to disclose it. Afterwards, 
Shufeldt and several California physicians went person¬ 
ally among the Indians, but with as little success. That 
an antidote must be found is realized by both the med¬ 
ical authorities of California and Arizona. The regions 
infested by the “mottled terror” are rapidly becoming 
inhabited, and each year sees a big increase In the white 
population. For many years, perhaps for hundreds of 
them, the Pima, Apache, Maricopah'and Yuma Indians, 
who little feared the bites of rattlesnake's or centipedes, 
waged a cautious and systematic war of extermination 
against the Gilas, but as these tribes have thinned out 
the "monsters’’ have increased alarmingly, until there 
are now some places where scores of them may be met 
with in a single clay. With the increasing population 
of white people, the majority of whom as yet bear no 
especial enmity toward the Gila, it is thought that the 
annual death list from their bites will rapidly grow. 
To prosecute his experiments Prof. Wetherbee followed 
the course of the Gila River, where the “monsters” 
have always been found in the greatest numbers. For 
weeks at a time he watched the reptiles in their nat¬ 
ural homes before attempting to capture them. In his 
cabin near Castle Dome Mountains be at one time had 
fifty of them captive, and it was then that he suc¬ 
ceeded in securing for the! first time enough poison to 
experiment with. Irritating the creatures, he suc- 
[ April 10, 1904. 
for the purpose of experimenting upon, died much more 
quickly. 
One afternoon in August we were interrupted in our 
experiments by a half-Mexican ranchero, who tore up 
excitedly on his mustang, crying that his daughter had 
been bitten by a" Giia. Less than an hour after the 
girl had been bitten we were back at her side. The 
Gctim was about twenty years old, with a bright, pretty 
lace, and, immediately complained that though she was 
suffering intense pain, she seemed to be paralyzed, and 
could move her hands and limbs only with great diffi¬ 
culty. A little later, after stimulants had been admin¬ 
istered, she began crying out iu agony, saying that her* 
head was splitting. Gradually the pain seemed to leave 
her, and a few miutes before death, unconsciousness 
came to her relief. This case was a singular one, in¬ 
asmuch as the girl lived for more than two hours after 
having been bitten. Ordinarily, few persons can speak 
after fifteen minutes, and with the exception of those 
few who recover, all cases prove fatal within half an 
hour. 
That the whites of the Southwest are beginning to 
realize the terrible effects of the Gila’s poison is shown 
in the case of a ranchman, who, while camping en route 
home from Phoenix, stepped on a Gila before he put on 
his boots in the morning. The reptile immediately bur¬ 
ied its teeth in the ranchman’s big toe and clung there. 
Shrieking to his companions, the ranchman called for 
paper, and while friends severed the Gila's head he 
wrote down a few last words to his loved ones at home, 
and gave instructions as to -what shoujd ae done with 
his property. A few minutes dater the man lost con¬ 
sciousness, and died with his pencil still in his hand. 
One case was called to our attention which proves 
that among the Hualpis exists a remedy for the Gila 
bite. Among the Yy*ias was a squaw Who was bitten 
by one of the reptiles over thirty years ago. This 
woman had lived for some years among the Hualpis. 
and it is known that at the time she was bitten she 
quickly made Some sort of a decoction which she drank. 
Years after, the army officers of that-part of the South¬ 
west were instructed to discover what this remedy’was, 
if possible, but then it was too late. The effects of the 
poison had turned the squaw into a semi-iaiot, until 
now she does not remember what she did to counteract 
the poison. She is now pointed out by the whites and 
Indians as the only person in those regions who ever 
survived a real bite of a Gila monster. In all of the 
cases where the victims survived. Prof. Wetherbee 
found that the bites had been slight ones, and the crea¬ 
tures had not caught firm enough holds to allow them 
to inject their venom. 
For a long time there has been a great mass of fic¬ 
tion about the fatal effects of the breatn of the Gila 
monster, and any number of traditions among the Indi¬ 
ans and old soldiers of the Southwest concerning the 
blighting effects left by the crawling of the animal over 
