“Reports of rattlesnake bites in Arizona on rise,” proclaimed the Arizona Daily Star on August 21^st. Recently, I had an encounter with a rattler—stepped on it while running one evening. So when ASM Archivist Amy Rule submitted her latest blog titled Snake Season in the Library I feared that even while at work I might have to keep a sharper eye out for snakes. Read on to discover ASM’s snake story. –Lisa Falk, blog editor

One of the oldest books in the ASM Library collection is Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves’ report to the U. S. Congress titled “Report of an Expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers” published in 1854. It contains an account of snakebite season over one hundred years ago that resonates with those of us who live in the Southwest.

Sitgreaves was selected to lead the effort exploring and mapping territory the United States had recently acquired from Mexico. When the expedition departed from Santa Fe on August 13, 1851, it included the young Philadelphia physician and naturalist Samuel Washington Woodhouse. His job was to look after the health of the men in the group and to observe and collect specimens of birds, reptiles, insects, fish, and mammals in the new territory.  His report appeared in Sitgreaves’ book along with beautiful plates of the wildlife.

Woodhouse collected hundreds of specimens that first went to the Academy of Natural Science in Philadelphia and later were dispersed around the country. He clearly enjoyed this work, but his journal also describes a painful encounter with a rattlesnake.

On Wednesday morning, the 17^th of September 1851…when about two miles from Zuni, in passing along an Indian trail, I came within a few inches of treading upon a rattlesnake, which immediately coiled himself up and prepared to strike. Jumping back, I drew my ramrod, and with it struck him over the back, with sufficient force to break it. Being a fine specimen, I wished to preserve it without further injury, when, placing my gun on his head, and seizing it, as I supposed, immediately back of the head, picked him up; but, unfortunately, I had too long a hold, when he threw round his head and buried his fang in the side of the index finger of my left hand….The pain was intense.

The doctor kept his head and immediately began treating his injury with every remedy he could think of. He applied a tourniquet, applied suction to the bite, doused it with ammonia, lanced the wound, painted it with silver nitrate, and even resorted to “the western remedy” recommended locally – to get seriously drunk on whiskey and brandy. Days of agonizing pain followed, along with swelling and nausea, but five days later he wrote optimistically in his diary, “I awoke this morning feeling much improved.” He feared gangrene most of all. It was not until months later that he realized the damage done to his muscles, nerves, and circulation by the snake’s powerful venom had left him with a permanently weakened and deformed hand.

In the years since 1854, guns have changed a lot. Ramrods are no longer accessories for the mandatory muzzle-loading firearm. But as Woodhouse’s account reminds us, snakes have NOT changed.

Editors Note: The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy recommends your snakebite first-aide kit consist only of car keys and a cell phone, as the best remedy is to get the victim to a hospital ASAP. I was luckier than Woodhouse, escaping without a bite, but, nonetheless, I will remember to keep a sharp lookout and carry a flashlight for when dusk turns to night. Snakes are most active at night. Snake season in Arizona is April through October.  (Information from Vim & Vigor, p 56, fall 2012.)

Today’s blog was written by Arizona State Museum’s archivist Amy Rule. She can be found working alongside the rest of the Library and Archives staff in the beautiful second floor reading room at ASM providing preservation and access to over 1500 linear feet of archival and manuscript holdings.