Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/232

 216 RATTLESNAKE RAUCH attains a length of 5 or 6 ft. and the thickness of a man's wrist; the color is yellowish brown varied with darker, on the lower parts lighter; there are wide lozenge-shaped spots along the back edged with white, with light stripes and other smaller and less distinct spots on the sides ; brownish black bands between the eyes, and from the top of the head along the neck. It is found only in dry, rocky, elevated regions, covered with thorns and bushes ; the negroes esteem its flesh a delicacy ; it often bites and destroys cattle coming near its retreat, the poison being more virulent in tropical climates. The genus crotalophorut (Gray) seems to connect crotalus with trigonocephalus (copper- head), having the rattles of the former and the plates on the head of the latter. The small or ground rattlesnake (C. miliariu, Gray) is dark gray above, with a brownish red vertebral line interrupted by a row of subquadrate black spots margined with yellow ; a double series of black spots on each side, the upper larger but less distinct, and a white streak backward from the eyes. It is generally from 16 to 18 in. long, and is common in the United States as far N. as lat. 35, in dry places among leaves, preying on field mice and small birds ; its bite is fatal to small animals, but not to man. The prairie rattlesnake (C. tergeminus, Say) is a little over 2 ft. long; it is cinereous above, with a triple series of dark brown spots, and a double series of dusky spots below ; it is fond of hiding in the holes of the prairie dog (cyno- mys), on the young of which it chiefly feeds ; it occurs in the country near the Rocky moun- tains and the sources of the Missouri. Other species are described by Dr. Holbrook, and by Baird and Girard. The poison gland is com- pressed by the temporal muscle during the act of striking ; there is a very extensive communi- cation of the glandular tissue with the vascular system, the blood vessels surrounding the se- creting tubes in a capsular manner. Microscop- ically the poison appears as a limpid hyaline serum, with crystals of ammonio-magnesian phosphate, according to Dr. W. I. Burnett. According to Dr. Mitchell it is yellow, acid, glutinous, of a specific gravity of 1'04; devoid of taste, smell, and acridity ; beginning to co- agulate at 140 F., and soluble in water. It consists : 1, of an albuminoid substance, coagu- lable by pure alcohol but not by a heat of 212 F., called by him crotaline, the poisonous ele- ment ; 2, of a non-poisonous albuminoid com- pound, coagulable both by heat and alcohol ; 3, of a yellow coloring matter and an undeter- mined substance, both soluble in alcohol, traces of fatty matter and free acid-saline bodies, chlo- rine, and phosphates. No temperature from zero to 212, nor acids and alkalies at moderate temperatures, nor alcohol, chlorine, nor iodine, destroy the poisonous property of the venom. This fluid is fatal even to the bitten snake; it destroys the vitality of the blood and its pow- er of coagulation, as by a lightning stroke ; it probably acts as a powerful sedative through the blood on the nervous centres; hence the best antidotes are active stimulants, especially alcohol in some form ; and, vice versa, intoxi- cation may be neutralized by taking this poison into the stomach in the form of pills. The poison varies in intensity according to season, climate, and vigor of the animal, being most active in tropical regions and in warm weather, when it has been long retained or the animal is greatly irritated ; cold-blooded animals gen- erally suffer little from its bite, and pigs kill and devour it with impunity atid avidity, their covering of fat preventing the introduction of the poison into the circulation ; its virulence is soon exhausted by rapidly succeeding bites, as has been proved by experiments on chickens and rats ; as its secretion goes on for some time after death, experimenters should be careful in their manipulations about the fangs and poison apparatus. Many plants, and other substances are reputed to be efficacious against the bite of the rattlesnake ; but none have been proved to be so when the poison fangs have actually en- tered the tissues. For details on the habits of these serpents, on the anatomy of the parts concerned in the secretion and expulsion of the poison, and in the infliction of the wound, and for a full enumeration of genera and species, with illustrations and copious bibliography, see a memoir in vol. xii. of the "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge" (1860), by S. Weir Mitchell, M. D., and an abstract of the same in the secretary's report for 1860 (8vo, Washington, 1861). K vu II, Christian Daniel, a German sculptor, born in Arolsen, Jan. 2, 1777, died in Dresden, Dec. 3, 1857. He studied in Cassel, and in 1797 went to Berlin, where ho was attached to the royal household till 1804, when Queen Louisa enabled him to study in Dresden and in Rome. He early became known by his bust of a daughter of Wilhelm von Humboldt and bass reliefs of " Hippolytus and Phaedra," "Mars," and " Venus wounded by Diomedes." In 1813 he finished his celebrated statue of Queen Louisa, and subsequently executed hundreds of works, of which almost every considerable German city has one or more. The principal are statues of King Maximilian at Munich, Blucher at Berlin and at Breslau, Durer at Nuremberg, Luther at Wittenberg, Kant at Konigsberg. six large Victories in the Walhalla, and especially his colossal equestrian statue of Frederick the Great at Berlin, finished in 1851. His last model, that of "Moses praying together with Aaron and Hur," has been cut in marble by Albert Wolf. He held the posts of court sculptor and professor of sculpture in the academy of Berlin. RUTH, Friedrleh August, a German philoso- pher, born at Kirchbracht, Hesse-Darmstadt, July 27, 1806, died in Mercersburg, Pa., March 2, 1841. He graduated at the university of Marburg in 1827, afterward studied at Gies- sen and Heidelberg, and in his 24th year be- came extraordinary professor in the univer-