ENCOUNTER WITH A DOUBLEHORNED VIPER.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 210, 16 November 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

ENCOUNTER WITH A DOUBLEHORNED VIPER.

The Mail steamer Bonny arrived a)Liverpool on September 3rd. Mr Summers was brought by tho Bonny from Opobo. Mr .Summers, who was chief engineer of tho steamer Ebani, had an encounter with a double-horned viper. The snake was about 7ft. long, and Mr Summers is said to be the only man in Africa who ever survived from a bite from a snake of this species. It seems that the natives of Opobo reported a wild elephant in the bush, and District Commissioner Stein, of the Niger Coast Protectorate, and Mr Summers went in pursuit. Tho snake, which made a dash at Summers unobserved, fixed its flangs in tho ankle of tbe right foot. After getting free Summers who showed pluck, managed with the aid of his companions to dispatch the viper by blowing its head off. Immediately after Summers was bitten his leg commenced to-swell and ho was carried with all speed to the Consulate. In less than an hour his leg was three times its natural size and tho clothing had to be cut from Summer's body. Dr Thomson, of the Protectorate, who treated the injury, twice injected into the wound either iodine or bromide of potassium. The poison of the viper had entered Summer's body, and even tho doctor thought death would take place withiu nine hours. Tho chiefs and natives who had been consulted by the doctor, to soe if they knew of any native antidote, said that all persons previously bitten Itad died in about an hour. Summers was 11 days in the Consulate, receiving the unremitting attention of Dr Thomson, and although ho was at times delirious he pulled through. His recovery created great astonishment, _ and Dr. Thomson has written to a medical journal an account of his treatment of tho bite.