Timber Rattlesnake - Symbol

Symbol

The timber rattlesnake was designated the state reptile of West Virginia in 2008. That state's legislature praised "...a proud contribution by the eighth grade class at Romney Middle School, from West Virginia's oldest county, in West Virginia's oldest town, to have been instrumental in making the timber rattlesnake the state reptile..."

This snake became a prominent symbol during the American Revolution in part because it had a fearsome reputation. The use of the timber rattlesnake as a symbol of American anger and resolve to defend itself was no idle threat. During the period of 1763–1787, medical knowledge was not up to the challenge of treating a timber rattlesnake's bite. First, at the time, European standards of medical practice were based on the ideas and concepts of Galen, where disease was caused by imbalances in the body; this was the standard to which all doctors practicing medicine in the colonies were trained. Because of the then poorly understood effects on the nervous or hematological system of this species' venom, a physician would prescribe a course of action that wound up killing the patient faster (bleeding with leeches) or prescribing herbs without testing of their efficacy as a cure beyond imitation of Native American practices Secondly, Linnaeus only described and identified this snake in 1758; firsthand experience with timber rattlesnakes among London scientists would have been poor, the flora and fauna of the colonies would have been disdained as savage by thinking circles, and published information on its habits would have been thin, allowing for hearsay and superstition to grow on both sides of the Atlantic.