Note 22 — PART FIRST. OF INFLAMMATION. (continued 5)

[In this country we have a number of insects, the sting of which is sometimes attended with considerable pain and swelling, or even high inflammatory excitement. Of these, the most common are the bee, wasp, hornet, yellow-jacket, and humble-bee, which all secrete a subtle poison contained in a reservoir in the abdomen, from which it is projected by the barbed dart when in the act of stinging. Severe and even dangerous wounds are occasionally thus inflicted; indeed, in a few instances death has been known to follow, especially in persons of a nervous, irritable temperament. Another insect, from the bite of which a good deal of irritation often results, is the musketoe, which abounds everywhere, during the hot summer and autumnal months, along the water-courses of the western and southern states. The little punctures made by this animal I have known in several instances to degenerate into unhealthy sores, furnishing a thin, sanious discharge, attended with more or less itching, and exceedingly difficult to heal. The late Professor Dorsey mentions a case—that of a lady who previously enjoyed good health—in which the bite of the musketoe terminated in gangrene and death.

Of the great number of serpents inhabiting this country, only two—the rattlesnake and copperhead—are known to be venomous. Both are very active in warm weather, are furnished with long teeth, and secrete an acrid, virulent poison, of a yellow-greenish colour, which is lodged in a bag or reservoir at the roots of two of the teeth of the upper-jaw. When this poison is fairly infused into a wound of the skin and cellular tissue, it often proves fatal in a few minutes; in other cases, the patient either recovers, or death does not occur until a later period.—ED.]