MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. 321 
Puff Adder venom were added. The mixture was thoroughly 
mixed and allowed to stand six hours. It was then carefully 
strained. The liquid, which was reddish-brown in colour, was 
divided into two portions and injected under the skin of the thighs 
of two fowls. Both fowls died in less than two hours. 
Since writing the foregoing a friend has succeeded in obtaining 
a sample of Zibiba from a Kafir medicine man in Swaziland. 
He stated it to be the pulverized bark of a root mixed with the 
powdered remains of the entire head of an adult Puff Adder. It 
seems the head is first thoroughly dried and then pounded with 
the bark. This preparation is supposed to be a certain cure 
for the bite of a Puff Adder. The directions of the medicine man 
were, to place a pinch or two on the tongue and swallow it ; to 
scarify the wound and rub some into the cuts. Truly this was 
a curious sort of “cure.’”’ A moment’s reflection would make 
it clear that the application of the pulverized head of a venomous 
snake to a wound would simply increase the poisonous symptoms, 
for snake venom does not lose any of its poisonous properties 
if dried, unless allowed to decompose before drying it. 
However, I experimented with the substance in the usual 
way, but, like the other samples of Zibiba, it had no curative 
effect. Some was rubbed into incisions made in the legs of fowls 
which had not been previously bitten or otherwise injected with 
snake venom. 
Both fowls showed slight symptoms of viperine poisoning. 
MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. 
So, it seems after all, the confidence of the public has been 
misplaced, and that of the native population as well. “‘ Zibiba,”’ 
which, since the advent of the white man to South Africa, has 
been regarded as an absolute cure for snake bite, has proved to 
belong to those many popular “ cures ’’ which have failed utterly 
when tested under proper conditions. Personally, I am in no way 
prejudiced in favour of or against any alleged remedy. Rightly 
or wrongly, I think it a duty to test these alleged snake bite 
cures. Itisa pity that it should be necessary that living creatures 
should have to be sacrificed that we may be in a position to prove 
conclusively whether alleged snake bite remedies are genuine or 
not. However, there is no other way we know of. Provided 
Y 
