QUININE, TANJORE PILLS, SNAKE’S GALL, ETC. 333 
stimulant, although on experimentation with animals I found 
it useless. The animals died as rapidly as when no treat- 
ment had been administered. Strychnine is a dangerous sub- 
stance in the hands of most people. It should never be used, 
unless by or under the direction of a medical man or some one 
else who thoroughly understands its use, and the exact dose. 
Although Fontana nearly a hundred years ago showed that 
ammonia was of no value in cases of snake bite, it continued to 
be used extensively all over the snake-inhabited world, and is 
still being relied upon. The reason is, that scientific discoveries, 
as a general rule, are published only in scientific journals which 
the generality of people never read, or if they did read them 
they would, in all probability, not understand them, owing to 
the technical terminology usually employed when writing about 
simple facts. 
QUININE, TANJORE PILLS, SNAKE’S GALL, VINEGAR, WATER. 
Quinine, whether administered internally or applied to the 
bitten part, is of no curative value, although it is largely em- 
ployed in the treatment of snake bite. 
A remedy commonly used in the East, mostly in India, and 
known as the Tanjore Pill, has a great reputation as a snake bite 
antidote. It is an arsenical preparation. Doctors Fayrer and 
Brunton have shown that the belief in this famous cure is without 
any foundation. 
A popular remedy for snake bite among the colonists and 
natives of South Africa is the contents of the gall of a venomous 
snake of the species which inflicted the bite. It is firmly believed 
that if a person is bitten, the snake killed and the contents 
of its gall bladder swallowed, it is an infallible cure. 
I have tried this gall remedy on animals, but it does not 
retard death in the least. A snake was allowed to bite an animal. 
It was then instantly killed, and half the contents of the gall 
bladder injected under the skin of the victim, and the other half, 
mixed with a little water, was forced into the animal’s stomach 
by means of a rubber tube and syringe. 
In other cases the bile was administered internally only. 
The animals died as quickly as when no remedy had been given. 
In other cases the blood of the snake which caused the bite 
