The deadly boomslang, the snake fingered in the death of Dr. Karl Schmidt. Photo by William Warby The actual bite happened in less than a second. Dr. Karl Schmidt, an American herpetologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, had been sent a live snake to identify by his colleague, Richard Marlin Perkins (then the director of the Lincoln Park Zoo). The animal appeared to be a boomslang (Dispholidus typhus), a kind of rear-fanged African snake, but there was something a bit odd about its scales, so Schmidt and his colleagues discussed the matter as they examined the serpent. It didn't take long for the agitated animal to decide it had had enough manhandling. "I took it from Dr. Inger without thinking of any precaution, and it promptly bitme on the fleshy lateral aspect of the first joint of the left thumb," Schmidt wrote in his diary on September 25th, 1957. "The mouth was widely opened and the bite was made with the rear fangs only, only the right fang entering to its full length of about 3 mm." A day later, he would be dead. Karl Schmidt, like most herpetologists and toxinologists at the time, didn't believe that boomslang venom was anything to worry about, in spite of peer-reviewed studies that raised alarms. So rather than seek medical attention, Schmidt took to his journal, documenting his symptoms over the next 24 hours. "4:30-5:30 strong nausea, but without vomiting, during trip to Homewood on suburban train," he wrote. "5:30-6:30 strong chill & shaking, followed by fever