330 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
firm faith in it. Snakes had bitten her, she declared, and she 
had proven the remedy to be genuine. ‘‘ All you have got to do 
is, if a snake bites you on the foot, to get some good Stockholm 
tar and smear a ring of it round your leg on the skin between the 
bitten spot and the heart.’ “‘ You see,” said the lady, “ the tar 
on the skin prevents the poison going past. It drives it back, 
and it runs out with a lot of black blood from the wounds in- 
flicted by the snake.’’ This wasn’t all. She had another sure 
cure. “If a snake should bite you, catch a fowl or a pigeon, 
split it open, and hold its warm flesh to the site of the bite. The 
flesh will draw out all the poison.” This latter “ cure’”’ I have 
found to be firmly believed in by a large section of the farming 
class. 
SO-CALLED CURES WHICH KILL. 
To the medical man it is alarming how the public swallow 
drugs without knowing anything of their properties. Great 
doses of most potent medicinal substances are taken with 
the object of curing some complaint, or for the treatment of 
snake bite. There can be no doubt that considerable numbers 
of people are killed, and others ruined physically for life by 
swallowing drastic drugs, the properties of which, and their effects 
upon the organs and tissues of the body, they are profoundly 
ignorant. 
In treating cattle, farmers will often make a concoction of 
the most poisonous of substances and pour it into the sick beast. 
If the animal should eventually recover, the farmer triumphantly 
heralds his cure all over the neighbourhood. 
Some so-called snake bite antidotes which I have been told 
are often administered, would certainly seriously upset the 
individual to whom any of them were given, if they did not 
actually kill him. One of the antidotes is the drinking of a 
mixture of paraffin, Stockholm tar, and salt. Another is pipe 
oil, and a bottle of brandy neat. 
EAuU-DE-LUCE. 
Eau-de-luce at one time was generally believed to be the 
finest thing known for the cure of snake bite. It was adminis- 
tered by the medical profession. Any one doubting its efficacy 
