Bite

“ I will bite you, I will gnaw you all over,' exhibiting every appearance of great pleasure. If a child commits some slight fault they do not resort to simple blows, but pursue it through the street and bite it on the face, ears, and arms until the blood flows. At such moments the face of even a beautiful woman is transformed, with injected eyes, gnashing teeth, and convulsive tremors. ”

“ What eagerness to bite is often displayed by the dog when labouring under enteritis, and especially by him who has imbibed the poison of rabies! How singular is the less dangerous malady which induces the horse and the dog to press unconsciously forward under the influence of vertigo! — the eagerness with which, when labouring under phrenitis, he strikes at everything with his foot, or rushes upon it to seize it with his teeth! ”

“ The right ventricle of the heart was empty, and the left filled with dark blood, which had coagulated. The liver and kidneys were healthy, and the gall-bladder very much distended with bile. The intestines presented a few livid patches on the outside.
Hydrophobia.—The bite of an enraged animal is always of great danger to man, and death has followed a wound inflicted by domestic animals or even fowls; a human bite has also caused a fatal issue. ”

“ He forces his teeth to meet through whatever he takes hold of, but then immediately repeats the bite somewhere else, not holding what he has, but snapping again and again like a cat, so that his bite is considered even worse than that of the badger. ”

“ In all other respects the loss of the toes discovered no inconvenience.
Animals' Bites.—That there is something more serious than the mere wound in the bite even of a healthy animal is attested by Mr. Pagin Thornton, from a chapter in his own experience, and in the testimony of a number of his own friends who have suffered for weeks together from having been bitten. "And what is more surprising to me," he says, "is that some of us may have hands crippled for some time from bites of a man's teeth." ”

“ Wild animals, as well as domesticated, no doubt spread the disease by biting, but it is a fact that dogs are inclined to bite, and have a good opportunity to attack people, and hence are considered the principal factor in the spread of the disease. ”

“ All three of these pests are found abundantly in the woods, and without being prepared for them, instead of [299] pleasure, the sportsman’s trip would be one long torture. People have been known to be completely disfigured by their bites, and I have had my neck as thoroughly girdled as though it had been done with a hot iron. Their bite inflames the blood, and if accompanied with the free use of ardent spirits, may produce unpleasant consequences. ”

“ The mouth is oval, the biting apparatus with difficulty seen, and the teeth not very numerous. The bite is so little acute that the moment of attachment, and the incision of the membrane is scarcely perceived by the sufferer from its attack. ”

“ When the animal wishes to bite, it springs up again, and the gland, compressed by the action of biting, sends into the little canal a jet of poison, which runs through it into the wound. As far as can be ascertained, this poison paralyses the victim and disorders the blood, which at once loses its power, and no longer acts upon the organs as before; still it is only injurious when it has been carried by the current of circulation into the mass of the blood; if swallowed, it has no effect whatever on the stomach. ”

“ A desire of biting others, most frequently attendant on canine madness. Animals in great pain, as in the colica saturnina, are said to bite the ground they lie upon, and even their own flesh. I have seen patients bite the attendants, and even their own arms, in the epilepsia dolorifica. ”

“ Wherefore they attack equally without barking all animals, whether wild beasts or men, and bite them. Their bite at first occasions nothing disagreeable except the pain of the wound; but afterwards it brings on the affection called hydrophobia, which makes its attack with convulsions, redness of the whole body, but especially of the countenance, sweating, and anxiety; and those affected shun water when they see it, and some every fluid that is presented to them. Some bark like dogs and bite those who approach them, and so doing they occasion the same affection. ”

“ Their bite feels like a fiery cinder slowly burning through the skin, but fortunately they do not cause much trouble to man, for they are led by instinct to seek the rough surfaces of animals and almost invariably light on the clothes instead of the hands or face. ”

“ I wish to dispel the idea which so many people have, that if a dog bites another, or even a person, and that dog should ever go mad, the dog and also the person will go mad too; such a thing is impossible, even though the disease may be lying latent in the dog the time he inflicted the bites. Pasteur, who was a great authority on rabies, used to say that a bite from a dog, even two days before there were any visible symptoms of the disease observed, was not dangerous. ”

“ Alcohol is as great a delusion and fraud in snake-bite as in everything else; instead of being an antidote, it increases the poisoning by its depressing effect on the heart. If you should be bitten, throw a bandage round the limb, above the bite, and tighten as for a cut artery. Then make with a clean knife two free cuts, about half or three-quarters of an inch deep, through the puncture, one lengthwise and the other crosswise of the limb, and let it bleed freely. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Sheep stamp the feet, butt, bleat, work the jaws, grind the teeth, leap, and move in a given direction regardless of obstacles. Pigs grunt, tremble, champ the jaws, run against obstacles, scratch the ground with their feet or snout and creep under the litter. They may even attempt to bite. Dogs are restless, whine, move in a circle, snap at straw, bars, doors, and other objects, and may show a disposition to bite. In all the domestic animals these delirious symptoms may closely resemble those of rabies. ”

“ The bite is not likely to be fatal unless the full contents of the poison sac is injected—which will not be done if the sac has been emptied in the preceding twenty-four hours—and if there are any obstacles, such as clothing or even hair, on the part struck by the snake. Most people, however, would almost die from fright, and such a thing is quite possible, if they thought there was no remedy. ”

“ Symptoms.—The symptoms of snake bite are a local swelling caused by an intense local inflammation, pricks showing where the fangs penetrated, depression, weakness, feeble pulse, difficult breathing, bluish discoloration of the visible mucous membranes, stupor, or convulsions. If the poison is not powerful or plentiful enough to produce death, it is, at any rate, likely to cause severe local abscesses or sloughs. ”

“ They are said to nibble the extremities of infants, and in one—apparently authentic—instance they overcame and devoured a man who had entered a disused coal-mine tenanted by starving rats. The bite is said to be severe (they will bite through a man’s thumb-nail into the flesh) , and the bite is long in healing. ”

“ Sometimes we see a child giving his friends a bite of his apple or candy or cake. Of course when disease germs are in the mouth of the one who takes a bite, the germs will be [155] left on the apple, candy, or cake. By no means should a boy or girl be selfish, but if you have something to share with your friends, break it or cut it into pieces. Never take into your mouth anything from which another person has taken a bite. ”

“ In the case of the dog bite we have a more or less extensive break in the skin and sometimes a deep wound in the flesh, through which the poison of hydrophobia, which is a living virus or animal poison, may be introduced, to be taken up slowly by the nerves themselves, reaching the central nervous system in about forty days. ”

“ It may be well to explain here that there is no more intensely painful or fiery bite known than the bite of the fire-ant or red ant of the Southwest and the tropics, named, in Zuñi, halo. Large pimples and blisters are raised by the bite, which is so venomous, moreover, that for the time being it poisons the blood and fills every vein of the body with burning sensations. ”

“ Tsutsugamushi.—The glands which drain the area in which is located the ulcer at the site of the bite of the Kedani mite show swelling and tenderness.
Rat bite fever also shows glandular enlargement in the glands tributary to the healed infecting bite of the rat.
In tularaemia the lymph glands draining the site of the infecting bite become inflamed and swollen, often suppurating. ”

“ True indeed it is that if 'tis by way of retort, and one that has received a dog's bite gives the biter a like bite in return, it does not seem to be reprehensible, as otherwise it would have been. Wherefore one must consider how and when and on whom and likewise where one exercises one's wit. ”

“ Always suck bites, as of spiders, unless there are abrasions of tongue and lips. After sucking bathe freely with fresh peroxide of hydrogen, boracic acid, or sugar-of-lead water. A leaf of green plantain, well bruised, bound on a bite or sting when nothing else is at hand keeps down inflammation and mitigates pain. ”

“ I like being bitten, partly for the same reason as I like being pinched, because if spontaneous it is a sign of my partner's amorousness and the biting never seems too hard. Women do not usually seem to like being bitten, though there are exceptions; 'I should like to bite you and I should like you to bite me,' said one woman ”

“ The bite is said to produce violent and prolonged fever, and to be even, dangerous to life. It is customary to warn travellers against remaining over night at Miana, and, of course, I have not by any means been forgotten. Like most of these alleged dreadful things, it is found upon close investigation to be a big bogey with just sufficient truthfulness about it to play upon the imaginative minds of the people. ”

“ Not a single hound has succeeded in biting through, but there is a different story to tell on the other side. A terrier has his jaw loose and it has to be bound up, such a crushing bite has he had. There are torn shoulders, necks, and limbs, and specks of blood on the nostrils and coats of the other hounds. ”

“ The symptoms caused by the bite of the viper are lancinating pain, which begins between three minutes and forty minutes after the bite, and rapidly stretches up the limbs,—swelling, at first firm and pale, afterwards red, livid and hard,—tendency to fainting, bilious vomiting, sometimes convulsions, more rarely jaundice,—quick, small, irregular pulse,—difficult breathing, cold perspiration, dimness of vision, and injury of the mental faculties. Death may ensue. A case is related in Rust’s Magazin of a child twelve years old, who died two days after being bitten in the foot ”

“ Neither seems to know what it is. The elder smells it, sticks her teeth into it, and then takes a bite. The little one tastes, and they eat it in alternate bites, growing more and more eager for fair bites as the process goes on. ”

“ Were they to cut the flesh with their teeth, which are as large as those of other quadrupeds of the same size, the pain of the bite would effectually rouse any of the human species, however soundly asleep; and the repose of animals is more easily disturbed than that of man. ”

“ In some parts of this country, the bite of a small adder causes pain, swelling, and unhealthy suppuration of the part, with some constitutional disturbance, but the results are seldom serious, and never fatal. In warmer climates, the bites of some snakes are followed by the most violent symptoms ”

“ In the midst of his mad capers the guard and orderlies rushed in, but before he was subdued he managed to fasten his molars in the arm of a guard.
A bite from a man in his condition is no laughing matter and the doctors took no chances; every man who was bitten had the wound immediately and thoroughly cauterized and was inoculated. ”

“ Certain tiny animals do not leave any pain when they sting us; so subtle is their power, so deceptive for purposes of harm. The bite is disclosed by a swelling, and even in the swelling there is no visible wound. ”

“ Some dogs, for instance, will only snap or give a slight bite in passing, while others will bite furiously, tearing the objects presented to them, or which they meet in their way, and sometimes with such violence as to injure their mouth and break their teeth, or even their jaws. ”

“ When the bite is a bad one, it festers and forms a hard core in the ulcer, which is very painful, and throbs very much indeed; and after that core comes away, unless you cleans ’em out well, the sores, even after they seemed to be healed, break out over and over again, and never cure perfectly. ”

“ A Person thus affected may be said in a Degree to have put on the Canine Nature, tho’ his Reason be all this time untouch’d and intire, may Bite, Howl, &c. because the like violent Agitation of the Blood in Him as was in the Dog will present like Species, and consequently (so far as their different Natures will allow) produce like Actions; just as it has been observed, that Sheep bitten by a Mad Dog, have run at the Shepherd like so many Dogs to Bite him; so much can an Alteration of the Blood and Spirits do. ”