328 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
antidote. In all serious cases, particularly those suffering from 
the venom of the Adders, or Boomslang, it is distinctly dangerous 
to administer strong doses of alcohol, as it would increase the 
hemorrhage into the tissues and under the skin. 
HORNIBALL’S PATENT WONDERFUL EXTRACT. 
In the Eastern Province of the Cape Colony, “ Horniball’s 
Patent Wonderful Extract’ is in great favour as a remedy for 
snake bite. 
In appearance it is a blackish substance of the consistency 
of vaseline. It smells like extract of male fern. 
It is stated to be specially efficacious in cases of bites by Puff 
Adders. 
Taking a quantity of this extract, I diluted it slightly with 
water and added two drops of Puff Adder venom, stirred it well 
in, and left the mixture for several hours. It was then injected 
under the skin of a large fowl. The fowl underwent the usual 
symptoms of poisoning by snake venom and died in three- 
quarters of an hour. The leg was swollen and saturated with 
extravasated blood. 
Smaller quantities of snake venom were mixed with the 
extract and injected after the mixture had stood several hours. 
The fowls died as rapidly as when the same quantities of venom 
were injected with pure water. 
If this extract can exert no neutralizing effect upon snake 
venom when actually mixed with it, even in a concentrated 
form, it most certainly will not exert any curative power if applied 
to the punctures, and it is not conceivable that it would have 
any better effect if swallowed. 
THE STOCKHOLM TAR AND FOWL FLESH CURES. 
I have always been willing to submit any popular so-called 
South African antidote to a fair trial, but some of the ‘ cures ”’ 
which I have been assured even on oath are absolute antidotes 
for snake bite are absurd and ridiculous, showing that those who 
believe in them have not even a rudimentary idea of human 
physiology. A farmer’s wife called on me one day and said 
she wanted me to make it known through the medium of my 
