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EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF THE BITE OF THE FEMALE LATRODECTUS MACTANS IN MAN

A. W. BLAIR, M.D.

Arch Intern Med. 1934;54(6):831-843.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The belief that the bite¹ of the spider Latrodectus mactans,² common in the southern half of the United States (fig. 1), is poisonous for man has been recognized for centuries.³ Evidence for the truth of this belief has rested largely on the statement of patients that immediately prior to the onset of their symptoms they had been bitten by a spider answering the description of Latrodectus mactans.⁴ In other cases, the spider alleged to have been responsible for the bite was caught and identified as a member of this species by competent arachnologists. Many physicians accepted this evidence of their patients and reported cases of spider poisoning in the scientific literature.

Bogen,⁵ in a comprehensive review of the literature on this subject, has collected nearly four hundred cases of this kind, ranging from the year 1720^3b to 1931. Twelve cases in which a fatal outcome was attributed to the bite . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
UNIVERSITY, ALA.

From the Department of Pathology and Bacteriology, School of Medicine, University of Alabama.

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