Posted on 10/11/2012 9:58:39 PM PDT by neverdem
Wish I had one while watching Biden tonight.
Interestingly (or not), about 15 years back or so they found something similar with, of all things, the venom of the cone snail. They found it not only had powerful painkilling capabilities, but that it could lower the tolerance threshold for opiates in terminal cancer patients’ developing a resistance to painkillers’ ability to manage their pain.
You go first.......
"The Black Maaaaammmmbbbaaaaaaa!!!"
The venom of a black mamba can kill a human in four hours, if, say, bitten on the ankle or the thumb. However, a bite to the face or torso can bring death from paralysis within 20 minutes. Now, you should listen to this, ‘cause this concerns you. The amount of venom that can be delivered from a single bite can be gargantuan. You know, I’ve always liked that word... “gargantuan”... so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence. If not treated quickly with antivenom, 10 to 15 milligrams can be fatal to human beings. However, the black mamba can deliver as much as 100 to 400 milligrams of venom from a single bite.
I had one nearly zip between my legs once in Cameroon many years ago.
We were pushing a pickup truck out of a giant hardened elephant footprint and I leaped into the back of the truck in the nick of time. They are FAST. Like greased lightning.
That lack of pain is called death.
If you were in Cameroon you must have either seen or heard about the Gabon Viper (and its cousin the Rhinocerous viper). Those two snakes, together with the Puff Adder, are my favorite African nightmares (apart from the hippo ...I have a very interesting hippo encounter story btw). The Gabon/Rhinocerous/Puff are heavy slow snakes, even though they have one of the fastest snake strikes in the world, with huge fangs (the Gabon has the longest fangs of any snake), totally invisible to the eye (in foliage Gabon vipers and Rhinocerous vipers are literally invisible), and have copious amounts of very nasty hemotoxic/cytotoxic venom. A really horrible way to die as your cells swell and breakdown, making you look like a balloon, with enough pain to make one laugh. I'd take a Mamba any day ...it will probably try to get away unless I am messing around with it (and I know enough about snakes to know which ones not to mess with), and were it to bite me and I am far from medical help I will simply stop breathing as the neurotoxins shut down my nervous system and go to sleep. A Gabon viper or Rhinocerous viper, on the other hand, will be hell on earth.
I have been using cobroxin for knee pain and it does help.
I tried that stuff and didn't notice a bit of relief.
At some points a Black Mamba bite would have been preferable. If a Black Mamba had bitten Joe, the snake would have died.
The dead feel no pain....
Nearly! I was over the tailgate when it shot by so fast I barely got a glimpse!
Was hospitalized for a considerable period of time and apparently it was only repeated blood transfusions which saved his life.
Cheers!
Aren’t you a snake fanatic?
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