Institutes and practice of surgery: being outlines of a course of lectures (Volume 1).

  • Gibson, William, 1788-1868.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Institutes and practice of surgery: being outlines of a course of lectures (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    but was afterwards captured by the British when coming out of Toulon. In August, 1803, she was commissioned at Plymouth, and taken into the service of the British Navy. Having been long in the Mediterranean while in the French service, the scor- pion had got on board. From the coldness of our climate the insect had lost its vigour, and lay concealed behind the lining, in the seams, betwixt the timbers, and in other parts of the ship ; but no sooner had the ship gone to sea, and proceeded to the southward, than it was found she was literally swarming; the heat renewed their activity: they crawled forth from their lurking holes and stung many of the men. The wound was always fol- lowed by violent and extensive inflammation, considerable swell- ing, and great pain, but I never observed any violent constitutional symptoms succeed to the local.* Of the numerous American serpents two species only are known to be venomous—the rattlesnake and copperhead. Eight varie- ties of the former have been familiar to naturalists, and two others have been discovered lately by Humboldtf and Bonpland. All are poisonous, but in particular the crotalus durissus, horridus, and miliarus. The copperhead, (boa crotaloides,) sometimes called the bastard rattlesnake, is also exceedingly malignant. All these reptiles are furnished with long teeth, or poisonous fangs, the roots of which are surrounded by a bag or reservoir containing an active or virulent poison. This poison is dis- charged into the wound through a small fissure of the tooth situ- ated near its extremity, and in many instances very quickly proves fatal both to man and to inferior animals. As regards the effect of the poison, much will depend upon the size of the animal bitten —death being produced more readily in the smaller than in the larger animals. According to the experiments of Vosmaer, spar- rows, finches and other small birds died in about four minutes, while a mouse died in a minute and a half. The deleterious ope- ration of the poison will also depend materially upon its quantity, and upon the season of the year at which the wound is inflicted. To ascertain the effect of the bite of the rattlesnake, several ex- periments were made by Captain Hall of Carolina, upon dogs, cats, chickens and frogs. Three dogs were bitten in succession by a snake four feet long. The first died in less than a quarter * Allan's System of Pathological and Operative Surgery, vol. i. p. 370. ' t These are the Crotalus Cvmanensis and the Crotalus Lajlingii. See Recucil d'Observations de Zoologie et Anatomie Compare, 4to.