THE VENOMS AND THEIR REMEDIES. 553 



through the system. Potash or soda plentifully applied to 

 the wound is a popular remedy also among the border 

 pioneers of America, who, on the theory that venom is of 

 an acid nature, make frequent use of alkalis. The child of 

 a gentleman whom I knew in Virginia was bitten on the 

 foot by a rattlesnake ; his whole body quickly exhibited the 

 symptoms of the poison. But the father was so confident 

 of the success of his own domestic treatment that he did 

 not even send for a doctor. *" Salcrains' (used in cookery) 

 was bound upon the bitten spot, and the child was dosed 

 with apple brandy until stupefied. Next day he was well. 



From all the ' recoveries ' above quoted, it may be said 

 that the bites could not have been very deep, or that the 

 snakes could not have been very virulent ; and in the many 

 hundreds of experiments tried in India and elsewhere, the 

 doctors have arrived at similar conclusions. A full charge 

 of venom injected directly into the veins, sJionld no remedy be 

 attempted^ is almost certain to be fatal. Within half an hour 

 a man might die from a vigorous crotalns, fer de lance, or 

 large claps. 



It is important to impress this on the reader, lest from 

 the cures above cited, I appear to argue that snake-bite 

 is not so serious an affair after all. Notwithstanding 

 that the South American Indians, in the midst of the 

 most deadly of the CrotalidcB, do fly confidently to their 

 gnaco and their traditional remedies, they know so well 

 when there is no chance of recovery that they attempt 

 no cures whatever. Travellers tell us they lay them- 

 selves down to die when bitten by certain snakes ; 

 probably they know that, from the position of the bite, or 



