Shun, as you would a rabid dog, a pretty little red-and-black
banded serpent about as thick as your thumb. If any living
creature whose habitat is the United States deserves the epithet
"deadly," it is the Elaps. Two species are known; the harlequin
snake, which ranges throughout the Gulf states to Texas and up
the Mississippi River to Ohio, and the Sonoran coral snake, found
in the Southwest only. By a strange perversion of facts, while
the harmless hog-nosed snake enjoys a repute of terror, the
Elaps, most dangerous of all American reptiles, is commonly
regarded as harmless. Partly this is due to its slight and
graceful prettiness, partly to its innocent-appearing head, which
shows no flattening (the popularly understood mark of the
venomous species), and partly to its lethargic and peaceful
disposition. Experimenters wishing to secure the venom of the
Elaps often find it difficult to rouse the snake to striking
wrath.
Very few instances are known of Elaps bite, but those few
unquestionably set this ornamental creature in a class by itself,
among American Ophidia, for "results." Out of eight
well-authenticated cases of Elaps bite, six of the victims died.
This is believed to indicate a falsely large percentage, however,
the scientific estimate of mortality being somewhere between
twenty-five and fifty per cent.
A government scientist tells me of a curious result from
coral-snake bite which came under his notice. The victim, who was
handling the reptile preparatory to photographing it, apparently
overstepped the bounds of its habitual forbearance, for it
fastened upon his finger with such determination that it had to
be pried off. The man soon became unconscious, but rallied, and,
after three days of dubious condition, recovered. Every year
since, at about the anniversary of the bite, an ulcer forms upon
the finger and the nail sloughs off. I have heard of similar
recurrent effects from crotaline poisoning, but none
scientifically attested, as is this phenomenon.
Before passing from the subject of snakes, let me make one point
clear. While the venomous snakes of this country are by no means
"deadly" in the ordinary sense of the term, their bite is always
serious, both in its immediate effects and in the possibility of
after effects. The bitten person should get to a physician at
once. The immediate treatment is prompt incision and sucking of
the wound. Permanganate of potash for rubbing into the bitten
place should always be carried by persons traveling in a
snake-infested country. If the bite is on a limb, a light
ligature will check the spread of the venom. Use whisky
sparingly, if at all, and then only in case of complete collapse.
The local treatments are most effective while the venom is still
around the site of the bite, and will reduce the injurious
effects considerably. But after half an hour or so the absorption
of the venom becomes more general and the local treatments
ineffective. When the venom once enters into general circulation
no chemicals or medication can neutralize its effects, except a
specific antivenin, such as has been prepared by Dr. Noguchi at
the Rockefeller Institute in New York. Antivenin is the only
antidote that can counteract the action of venom anywhere in the
body. It finds the venom wherever it is present and neutralizes
it there, without producing any ill effects on the system.