Medicine: Sharper than a Serpent

A human bite is sometimes sharper than a serpent’s tooth. A bite that is hard enough to break the skin, even with prompt treatment, may result in an amputation. If treatment is delayed twelve hours, the chances of amputation are increased threefold. In fact, said Dr. Otho C. Hudson of Hempstead, L.I., in last fortnight’s New York State Journal of Medicine, human bites anywhere on the body are much more dangerous than animal bites (except, of course, those of rabid dogs). Reason: human mouths contain very destructive bacteria.

When a hand is “bitten” (usually by an accidental blow against teeth, rarely by actual biting), treatment is to cut the wound wide open, remove all tissue injured by the poisonous teeth, bandage with splints or a cast so the hand cannot move. To impress laymen and doctors with the necessity for quick treatment, Dr. Hudson gave some facts: 1) of 14 hand bites treated at Massachusetts General Hospital, five of the seven treated late lost fingers or parts of them; 2) of 14 cases seen by Dr. Hudson himself, none of the eight treated early had amputations, three of the late comers lost fingers, one lost a hand.