snake known in Britain, where its poison is hardly ever so active as to occasion death.[1]
This serpent, like all the other poisonous species, is provided with a peculiar apparatus by which the poison is secreted, preserved, and introduced into the body of the animal it attacks. The apparatus consists of a gland behind each eye, of a membranous sac at the lateral and anterior part of the upper jaw, and of a hollow curved tooth surrounded and supported by the sac. The cavity of the tooth communicates with that of the sac, and terminates near the tip, in a small aperture, by which the poison is expelled into the wound made by the tooth.
The symptoms caused by the bite of the viper are lancinating pain, which begins between three minutes and forty minutes after the bite, and rapidly stretches up the limbs,—swelling, at first firm and pale, afterwards red, livid and hard,—tendency to fainting, bilious vomiting, sometimes convulsions, more rarely jaundice,—quick, small, irregular pulse,—difficult breathing, cold perspiration, dimness of vision, and injury of the mental faculties. Death may ensue. A case is related in Rust's Magazin of a child twelve years old, who died two days after being bitten in the foot;[2] another instance is briefly noticed in the French Bulletins of Medicine, of a person forty years old, dying also in two days;[3] Dr Wagner of Schlieben mentions his having met with two instances where persons bit on the toes died before assistance could be procured;[4] and notice has been taken in Hufeland's Journal of a girl, eleven years old, having been killed in three hours at Schlawe in Prussia.[5] In the last case burning in the foot, which was the part bitten, then severe pain in the belly, inextinguishable thirst, and vomiting, preceded a fit of laborious breathing, which ushered in death. The most remarkable instance, however, of death from the bite of the European viper is one lately described by Dr. Braun, as having been occasioned in the Dutchy of Gotha by the Coluber Chersea [Kreuzotter of the Germans]. A man, who represented himself to be a snake-charmer, insisted on showing his skill before Dr. Lenz, a naturalist of Schnepfenthal; and putting the head of a viper belonging to this gentleman's collection into his mouth, he pretended to be about to devour it. Suddenly he threw the snake from him, and it was found that he had been bitten near the root of the tongue. In a few minutes he became so faint that he could not stand, the tongue swelled a little, the eyes became dim, saliva issued from the mouth, rattling respiration succeeded, and he died within fifty minutes after being bitten.[6] A French writer observes that the common viper of France is not very deadly; but that the bite of the red viper may occasion death in a few hours.[7]
- ↑ For a severe case, not fatal, occurring in Kent, see London Medical Gazette, xii. 464.
- ↑ Magazin für die gesammte Heilkunde, xx. 155.
- ↑ Bulletins des Sciences Medicales, x. 92.
- ↑ Ibidem, xx. 195.
- ↑ Journal der Praktischen Heilkunde, 1829, ii. iv. 120.
- ↑ Rust's Magazin für die gesammte Heilkunde, xxxii. 361.
- ↑ Robineau-Devoidy in Archives Gén. de Méd. xxi. 626.
