Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Plate 3.2
Robert Friedrich Wilhelm Mertens (1894-1975).
One of the most important
and prolifically published herpetologists of the twentieth century, Robert Mertens began his
career as a research assistant at the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In
less than 10 years, his intense intellect and energy led to his rapid progression to Curator of
Herpetology at the museum. He eventually became Director of the Senckenberg Research
Institute and Nature Museum as a full professor. Among some of the specimens maintained
in his home vivarium was a Kirtlands' twig snake (
T. kirtlandii
). While feeding a lizard to this
specimen, he received a brief bite on a finger. This led to a protracted course of consumptive
coagulopathy including disseminated intravascular coagulation, and a hemorrhagic cerebral
infarct that ultimately resulted in his death. During his final days, he wrote a diary entry,
“Für Herpetologen Einzig Angemessene ende” (“A fitting end for a herpetologist”). He
had received an inconsequential bite from the same snake just weeks before the fatal
envenomation. Date of photo unknown; copyright to Kraig Adler.
the possible role of various species in human envenoming. McKinstry (1978, 1983)
reviewed colubrid species that possessed toxic secretions and glands that may be asso-
ciated with enlarged grooved or ungrooved, posterior maxillary teeth. Vest (1988)
reported lethal potency and bioactivity of secretions from
Hypsiglena torquata
(night
snake). Boquet and Saint Girons (1972) and Minton and Weinstein (1987) found that
many of these secretions exhibited complex immuno-identity with medically impor-
tant elapid venoms. However, little immunological relationship was found between
colubrid secretions and those of viperids. Although bites by many of these non-front-
fanged colubroids cause only minor local edema and lacerations, the species of the
genera currently known to be most toxic to humans (
Dispholidus
,
Thelotornis
, and
Rhabdophis
) produce consumptive coagulopathy due to Factor X and prothrombin
activators and, in some, due to probable disintegrins and rhexic hemorrhagins pres-
ent in these venoms (Bradlow et al., 1980; Ferlan et al., 1983; Kamiguti et al., 2000;
