"In thirty-six hours from the time he was bitten, he took three and a half quart bottles of the best rectified whiskey--about three quarts without showing the least symptom of intoxication."
I have cited this case at full length in order to present the _evolution of the symptoms_, on which alone depends the resemblance of the action of the poison to the chief symptoms of an attack of angina pectoris--a closer resemblance than half a lifetime of somewhat wide reading has enabled me to find in the effect of any other noxious agent. In fact, after much searching, I find this case to be unique. In other cases of spider bite I can find evidence that assures me of its genuineness, but, to my knowledge, its _order of symptom evolution_ is as solitary as it is singular and significant. This feature of _uniqueness_ will cause many to regard it with suspicion. I think they will do wrong; for some experience in proving work has taught me that one positive result from a drug out-weighs any number of negative.
In the case of _Latrodectus mactans_ we shall find, from other poisonings, that, as a rule, it displays an affinity for the præcordial region as the _locus_ of its chief attack; and having assurance of that fact, we shall not find it difficult to accept a clue from even a solitary instance.
Of the remaining cases in Dr. Semple's paper I shall cite only the symptoms, and be it observed that in all the cases as here given the italics are my own.
CASE 2. A man "was bitten in the groin, and complained of only a slight prickling and itching at the spot where he was bitten, but was complaining [when Dr. S. saw him] of _severe abdominal pain_, with _nausea_, and a _sinking sensation at the epigastrium_; and his _pulse_, in a few minutes after the bite, had already become _quick and thready_; and the _skin very cold_." The man soon recovered under ammonia and whiskey--two quarts of the latter produced no symptoms of intoxication.
CASE III. A lad of eighteen years of age. "There was no pain, but only itching and redness at the part bitten at first; but _violent pain soon commenced there_ [on the back of the left hand] _and extended in a short time up the forearm and arm to the shoulder and thence to the præcordial region_."
