In 1957, renowned herpetologist Karl P. Schmidt documented his own death in a meticulous scientific account that newspapers later dubbed his “death diary.” After being bitten by a juvenile boomslang (Dispholidus typus), he refused medical treatment, choosing instead to record the clinical progression of the venom's effects until he lost consciousness.
On September 25, 1957, while identifying a 30-inch snake at the Chicago Natural History Museum (now the Field Museum), the snake bit Schmidt on the fleshy part of his left thumb. Schmidt wrongly believed a juvenile, rear-fanged snake could not deliver a lethal dose to a human. When colleagues urged him to seek help, he reportedly replied that medical intervention would “interfere with the symptoms” he was observing.
“I took it from Dr. Robert Inger without thinking of any precaution, and it promptly bit me on the fleshy lateral aspect of the first joint of the left thumb,” Schmidt wrote in his journal.
Over the next day, he documented a terrifying sequence of symptoms: nausea, chills, gum bleeding, fever, and urination of blood. He maintained his routine, eating meals and taking the train home while recording every detail with meticulous precision. Even his breakfast the following morning was logged, complete with a note about continued bleeding from his mouth and nose, which he understated as “not excessive”—a chilling understatement, as it would be the last word he ever wrote.
September 25, afternoon: He noted the bite, described the snake, and recorded early mild symptoms before taking the train home.
September 26, 6:30 AM: He ate cereal, poached eggs on toast, applesauce, and coffee for breakfast, and noted continuous bleeding from the mouth and nose, though “not excessively.” “Excessively” was the last word Schmidt wrote.
After lunch, he vomited, called his wife, and soon became unresponsive. Despite attempts to revive him, Schmidt was pronounced dead at 3 PM. Schmidt was advised to seek medical help just hours before he died, but refused, saying “No, that would upset the symptoms.”
Boomslang venom causes disseminated intravascular coagulation, a condition in which so many small clots form in the blood that the victim loses the ability to clot further and bleeds to death. Schmidt’s autopsy revealed extensive internal bleeding. When he was brought into the hospital, he was bleeding from his eyes, lungs, kidneys, heart, and brain.
Boomslang antivenom is monovalent, it only works for boomslangs, and it certainly was not available in Chicago in the 1950s. However, in 2017, venom researchers tested a modern antivenom similar to what would have been available to Schmidt at the time and found it did a decent job neutralizing several deadly proteins in the boomslang venom. They noted that reducing the activity of a venom by even 25 percent can mean the difference between life and death.
Schmidt’s death raised awareness of the potential toxicity of rear-fanged colubrid snakes to the scientific community, resulting in a number of important studies in the 1960s and 1970s. His meticulous final diary remains one of the most extraordinary first-person scientific documents ever recorded — a scientist, true to his calling, observing nature even as it killed him.
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