EXTRAORDINARY CURE OF SNAKEBITE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1843, 19 November 1897, Page 6

EXTRAORDINARY CURE OF SNAKEBITE.

The Liverpool representative of Reuter’s Agency has had an interview with Mr F. J. Summers, who was recently bitten at Opobo, West Africa, by a double-horned viper, and who is said to be the only man known to have lived after being bitten by that species of snake in West Africa. Mr Summers is still only able to wear slippers, as the injury to his foot caused by the bite, although much better, does not admit of his wearing boots. Mr Summers said : “ When the chiefs who were sent to to know if they knew of any remedy heard of the occurrence they came to the Consulate and said that the white man would be like the black men before him—dead in an hour; and one chief stated that he himself lost a son within an hour after he had been bitten by a snake of the kind in question. I certainly owe my life to Dr Thompson, but he, too, never expected that I would pull round. I was eleven days in the. Consulate, where Mr Stein and Dr Thompson showed me unremitting attentions which I can never forget. My leg was a fearful size half an hour after I was bitten, and when I was taken on board the mail steamer Bonny to be brought home my leg was still about as large as my body and perfectly black. All my right side was also black. The inoculation of the medicine used by Dr Thompson—iodine, I understood, caused me great pain. At the same time 1 was given large quantities of brandy. I refused it, but it was simply forced down my throat. On board the Bonny there were among the passengers three doctors as well as the ship’s doctor, and I was told that all of them were of the opinion that my life could even then not be saved, although this was two weeks after I had been bitten. At one time my temperature while on board the steamer was 107.3. I did not see the snake until it bit me. I was wearing canvas shoes at the time. The viper was on me in an instant. It flew at me and had me before I could take any action. I was delirious a good part of the time in the Consulate. Everyone in the river, both black and white, were astonished at my keeping alive. Of course, it was anything but pleasant to be told you were going to die, but when I lived beyond the nine hours which Dr Thompson gave me I gained hope. I was lifted on board the Bonny by the ship’s crane. Of course I was then in considerable danger; but as I had lived for eleven days Dr Thompson had hopes that his remedy might after all save. The snake was killed, and is now on board Messrs Elder Dempster's steamer Ebani, of which I was chief engineer. The snake held on to my ankle until my companions beat it off with sticks, after which I blew its head off. It was agreed that the captain of the Ebani should hand it over to me if I recover el.” Mr Summers was on board the Bonny for about a month, so that his illness from the time he was bitten lasted some six or seven weeks.