1896.] on Immunisation against Serpents' Venom. 127 



night adders. Whilst frequently hearing of horses and cattle rapidly 

 succumbing to the bites of these snakes, it appeared strange that the 

 natives themselves, who mostly ramble about the Veldt almost naked, 

 seldom or never appeared to suffer any further inconvenience from the 

 bites of poisonous snakes than would be usual from any accident 

 which would cause a local inflammation ; and, on close inquiry, I 

 found that the natives in Bushmanland, Namaqualand, Damaraland, 

 and the Kalahari, are in the habit of extracting the j)oison-gland 

 from the suake immediately it is killed, squeezing it into their mouths, 

 and drinking the secretion, and that they thereby appear to acquire 

 absolute immunity from the effects of snake-bites." He proceeds to 

 describe the native treatment of snake-bite, and then adds : " Having 

 a month ago seen a native named Snellsteve, who is a snake-poison 

 drinker and collector, put his hand into a box containing two yellow 

 cobras, and several horn- and night-adders, in doing which he was 

 severely bitten, and has never since suffered anything more than a 

 little j)ain, such as might be caused by any trivial mishap, I feel I 

 can no longer refuse to believe in the efficacy of the snake virus 

 itself as a remedy against snake-poison." Among several communi- 

 cations which I have recently received on the subject, is one from 

 Dr. Knobel, of Pretoria, who writes that when a boy he came into 

 frequent association with a Bushman shepherd, who informed him 

 that he had for years been in the habit of swallowing small quantities 

 of the dried venom-glands of serpents, and he averred that by doing 

 so he obtained protection against serpents' bites, for he had often 

 been bitten without any other ill effect than that an irritable wound 

 was produced. He stated that the swallowed venom of the cobra pro- 

 duced greater protection than the venoms of less poisonous serpents ; 

 and that not only was this benefit produced by the swallowing of 

 venom, but that there w^as also produced an exciting intoxication, 

 differing from that of Indian hemp in so far that the venom always 

 produced the same degree of intoxication with a definite quantity, 

 however frequently it was taken, w^hile the effects of the Indian hemp 

 were gradually lessened by repetition. Another correspondent. Dr. 

 Laurence, of Cape Colony, writes that a Kaffir boy, "aged about 

 twenty-five years, frequently brings me for sale snakes of all kinds. 

 ... I have frequently seen this boy take hold of some most deadly 

 sna,kes, especially the well-known puff-adder, which he will allow to 

 bite him with impunity. Yesterday, I obtained from him what he 

 states as the reason why the poison did not harm him. When a little 

 boy, while walking in the Veldt, a puff-adder fastened on his leg. He 

 shook it off, calling to his father, who a few minutes after killed the 

 puff-adder and removed the poison glands. He then made small 

 paper pellets and dij^ped them in the poison, and administered one 

 occasionally to the boy, who stated that that cured him. He ex- 

 pressed his willingness to let any snake bite him." 



Several other letters I have received describe similar events, and 

 also confirm the statement of Dr. Knobel, that serpents' venom 



