562 
VARIETIES. 
a  few  minutes  when  I  arrived,  and  felt  so  soft  and  life-like,  that  I  examined 
her  very  carefully,  hoping  I  might  find  some  indications  that  would  en- 
courage me  to  experiment  a  little,  but  the  child  was  dead.  The  case  oc- 
curred in  this  wise :  the  mother,  Mrs.  K.,  was  combing  her  hair,  and 
dropping  her  comb  it  fell  through  a  crack  in  the  floor  near  the  wall.  The 
little  girl,  who  was  about  four  years  old,  went  immediately  out  to  search 
for  the  comb,  and  running  her  hand  through  the  fence  rail  underpinning, 
the  centipede,  which  had  been  attracted  by  the  comb,  and  had  not  time  to 
get  away,  saw  her  little  white  fingers  approaching  the  place  where  the 
comb  had  fallen,  turned  and  made  another  plunge  (for  he  is  a  beast  of 
prey),  and  striking  the  child's  thumb  near  the  outer  joint,  ran  up  towards 
the  hand,  leaving  a  track  on  the  thumb  very  similar  to  what  a  sharp, 
small  spur  would  make  were  it  rolled  along  on  the  skin.  There  were  five 
little  rosy  holes  made  with  the  feet,  and  higher  up  on  the  thumb  the  grab 
of  the  caliper-like  mandibles  was  plainly  seen.  The  symptoms  were,  ac- 
cording to  the  mother's  account,  instant  complaint,  which  grew  rapidly 
worse,  which  was  described  by  the  child  as  being  all  over  her.  Vomiting 
of  a  pale  yellow  glairy  matter  supervened,  which  continued  at  short  inter- 
vals with  increasing  violence,  until  the  child,  in  a  convulsive  struggle, 
ceased  to  breathe. 
Five  other  cases  of  centipede  bites  have  occurred  in  this  vicinity,  none 
of  whom  died.  The  symptoms  were  the  same  as  those  described  in  the 
Keene  child  till  the  vomiting  ensued  ;  at  this  stage  of  its  action  the  pain 
and  suffering  were  checked  in  four  of  the  cases  ;  in  the  fifth  case  it  was 
checked  before  it  had  run  so  far.  The  same  remedies  that  will  cure  the 
bite  of  the  rattlesnake  seem  to  do  no  good  in  cases  of  centipede  bite. 
From  the  Mexican  Indians  we  have  obtained  the  antidote,  and  it  was  that 
which  was  so  successfully  applied  in  the  five  cases  named  above.  When 
properly  prepared  and  administered,  it  entirely  relieves  the  patient  of  all 
symptoms  of  poison  in  about  four  hours. 
I  did  not  see  these  cases  myself,  but  they  occurred  close  by,  and  I  have 
no  doubt  as  to  their  being  correctly  reported  to  me;  two  of  them  having 
occurred  in  the  practice  of  my  son  Lucullus,  who  is  a  physician.  The 
antidote  is  the  roots  of  the  Tephrosia  Virginia,  boiled  in  milk  (sweet  milk) 
and  taken  in  doses  of  half  a  teacupful,  and  repeated  at  intervals  of  fifteen 
or  twenty  minutes.  A  good  handful  of  the  root,  as  long  as  the  hand  is 
wide,  pretty  well  bruised,  and  boiled  in  a  quart  or  three  pints  of  sweet 
milk,  is  about  the  average  preparation  ;  but  when  the  bite  is  a  bad  one, 
has  been  done  an  hour  or  two,  and  the  patient  is  of  a  robust  constitution, 
the  preparation  should  be  liberal.  Though  the  tephrosia  is  a  powerful 
agent,  and,  if  carried  too  far  beyond  the  antagonistic  action  of  the  poison, 
is,  I  presume,  not  entirely  without  danger,  I  have  never  known  any  bad 
symptoms  to  arise  from  its  use. 
The  scorpion  is  of  no  consequence  at  all.  I  said  all  that  is  necessary 
about  him  in  my  last  letter  to  you.    He  travels  over  all  parts  of  our 
