On 17 Jul 2003 at 9:36, Hoover, Jan J ERDC-EL-MS wrote:
> Just read an old paper and thought it might be of interest to some
> list subscribers with an interest in snakes.
>
> Dr. George Eugene Beyer, a German zoologist and museum curator at
> Tulane, was the first resident herpetologist in Louisiana. In 1898,
> he wrote an article on the live specimens he kept and cared for. It
> says almost as much about him as it does snake biology.
>
> After his captive cottonmouth gave birth, Dr. Beyer was curious about
> how venomous the babies were. He wrote, "To test their poisonous
> qualities, I permitted one of them to bite me...but outside of the
> peculiar penetrating sensation attendant upon all venomous snake
> bites, and not unlike a bee sting, I did not feel other results." He
> was not so fortunate a year later.
>
> Eight days after the birth of some rattlesnakes, he tested their
> toxicity. "I picked one of them up, teased it a little, and presented
> the first joint of the little finger of my right hand for a bite. The
> little snake bit with a vengeance...." During the next 36-hours, Dr.
> Beyer experienced "lightning-like pain...up to the
> shoulder...edema...subjective vertigo...dyspnoea [labored or painful
> breathing]...swelling [of the arm, side of body, and face]...[a fever
> of] 103 degrees..." but reported that "No remedy had been applied
> from beginning to end."
>
> Naturalists were a hardy breed then.
>
> Reference:
> Beyer, G.E. 1898. Observations on the life histories of certain
> snakes. Am. Nat. 32: 17-24.
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Prost,
Martin
Jackson, MS
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