Thirteen cases of death following rattlesnake and copperhead bite
in which satisfactory clinical data were obtainable, are given by
Prentiss Willson. Of the victims, five were young children, one
was a fourteen-year-old boy, one a chronic drunkard, and one a
leper who submitted to the stroke of a captive rattlesnake in the
mad hope that it would cure his affliction. It did--in
twenty-four hours. Of the remaining five, three were dosed with
alcohol in large quantities. In several of the cases, notably
those of the children, there seemed to be at least an even chance
of recovery, when the ligatures binding the affected limb were
loosened to relieve the pain, with quickly fatal results. Two of
the fatalities were attributed, not immediately to the venom, but
to the secondary blood-poisoning, this being the case with the
only copperhead bite in the list.
Death resulting typically from crotaline poisoning occurred in
two instances, one the fourteen-year-old boy, who was struck by a
large rattlesnake and died in six hours, despite skilled and
prompt medical attendance; the other, a Dr. Post, into whose
veins, it would appear, the poison entered immediately, since a
jet of blood spurted from the wound inflicted by the captive
rattlesnake. The man passed from great agony into coma, from
which he never rallied, death ensuing in five hours after the
bite. There is nothing in these data to indicate that a
full-grown man in normal health, and with proper treatment, will
succumb to crotaline poisoning unless the venom enters a vein,
direct.
In the matter of the comparative potency of snake poisons, there
are apparent contradictions. In the order of recorded fatalities,
the rattlesnake ranks easily first, with the water moccasin a
rather distant second, and the copperhead a very poor third. Yet
experiments upon animals indicate that moccasin venom is five
times as powerful as rattlesnake, though only three times as
powerful as copperhead. Taking the cobra as the basis of
estimate, it requires only twice as much moccasin venom as it
does cobra poison to kill a guinea pig, whereas it requires six
times as much copperhead and ten times as much rattlesnake virus.
Why, then, is the rattler pre-eminent over its more virulent
cousins? Probably for two reasons--the greater amount of venom
secreted, and the superior power with which the rattler drives
its fangs home.