「经济学人」Snakes on a list

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Snakes on a list When treating snakebites, American hospitals turn to zoos The zookeeper will see you now AT SPACE FARMS, a family-owned zoo and museum in rural New Jersey, Parker Space keeps African puff adders, cobras, copperheads, rat snakes, pythons, boa constrictors, “a bunch” of cottonmouth moccasins and eastern massasauga rattlesnakes. “I’ve been slinging a rattlesnake since I was 12,” says Mr Space, who is also a Republican state senator. On December 30th, aged 56, he sustained his first bite. His local hospital injected 14 vials of antivenom, but his bitten hand remained stubbornly swollen. So he was flown to the Bronx, where snake-bite specialists and exotic-snake antivenoms abound. The Jacobi Medical Centre is a short drive from the Bronx Zoo. The hospital’s toxicologists, working in a dedicated snake-bite unit, are experienced. (Given that just 7,000-8,000 people in America sustain venomous snake bites annually, most physicians are not.) They also have easy acce ………………………………