POISONOUS LIZARDS 
Closely related to the worm-like lizards are the poisonous lizards, which 
like the former possess a beadlike scalation. They are stout creatures covered 
with close beady tubercles, which in their garish coloring resemble Indian 
beadwork. The rear teeth are curved and fanglike. Those of the lower jaw 
are grooved while near their base a row of glands secretes (in at least one 
species) a poison closely resembling snake venom. These creatures live in 
the deserts of the southern United States, Mexico and Central America. 
Heloderma suspectum, the Gila monster of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, 
and Heloderma horridum , the beaded lizard of southern Mexico and Central 
America, are separated by a large stretch of territory in which no heloderm 
at all is found. This curious fact has thus far not been adequately explained. 
Another, though less known relative, is found in the East Indies. 
GILA MONSTER 
One of the “terrors” of the Texas badlands is the pink and black Gila 
monster, a venomous lizard attaining a length of twenty inches. It also 
inhabits parts of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Ordinarily sluggish and 
slow-moving, the Gila, when annoyed, can maneuver with great speed and 
a gility* Rearing up the forward part of its body, the reptile will hiss fiercely, 
while its forked, purple tongue darts menacingly in and out. Some Gilas 
are so agile that they can reverse their position completely in a single leap. 
If the lizard’s jaws connect, their bite is as powerful and tenacious as a 
bull dog’s. The teeth are ground from side to side with a view to imbedding 
the fangs as deeply as possible. The venom is rapidly fatal to small animals, 
particularly attacking the heart. Scientists believe it to be highly dangerous 
to man and recommend treatment of its bites with suction bulb and snake¬ 
bite serum. At one popular sideshow act in the American Southwest a 
snake-oil “doctor” used to permit himself to be bitten by the lizard and 
then stubbornly refused to die. However, he did die in Los Angeles in 1915, 
but some persons insisted that he had a weak heart or had died from some 
other cause. The fact remains that he turned blue all over and died in 
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