72 TIEV. ALFRED T. BRYANT. 



all these, to be ground into powder and administered by the 

 mouth on demand. It is seriously averred that some native 

 doctors have so saturated their blood with these poisons by 

 frequent small doses as to become at length absolutely 

 immune to any kind of snake-bite. 



No doubt these animal antidotes of the natives would be 

 more effective if it were possible to inject them into the blood 

 more directly than through the alimentary canal. The Soutli 

 American Indian is fully aware of this, and the Zulu doctor 

 has already an inkling of the fact, and is even now, in his 

 rude way, making a manifest effort (as we shall presently see) 

 to find some readier access to the blood than through the 

 mouth. Personally, I believe that the future will prove the 

 native theory to be correct, that snake-poison is assimilable 

 through the stomach, and can both cure from and immunise 

 against the effects of bite, and that the secret of success lies 

 only in the proper method of administration, chiefly as 

 regards the timeliness of application and the quantities to be 

 taken. 



European experts have not yet advanced one inch on the 

 Kafir in discovering any more certain antidote than the 

 snake-poison itself. They supplement their serum (anti- 

 venom), hypodermically injected, with chloride of gold or of 

 lime, strychnine, ammonia and permanganate of potash ; and 

 the native doctor supplements his dried snake-head and bile 

 with innumerable plant-remedies. 



Smith, in his ' South African Materia Medica,' mentions 

 the iMimyane (Leonotis leonurus) and the umCwili 

 (L. ovata) as the most powerful remedies known in the Cape 

 Colony. The knowledge, he says, was carried there by the 

 Fingo refugees, and these, we know, came from Natal and 

 Zululand. The Zulu doctors are Avell aware of the powers of 

 these plants, and they even believe that, when sprinkled in 

 decoction about a kraal, they will keep snakes away. But I 

 have not heard that they are regarded by them as the best 

 snake-bite antidotes. Indeed, I find the Zulus rarely like to 

 rely on any single remedy ; they are more accustomed to mix 



