238 VENOMS 
to be in possession of means to preserve themselves from snake- 
bites, which are just as ridiculous and infallible as the procedure 
described above. 
The archives of a criminal anthropology contain the story of 
a Lyonnese gold-seeker, who had himself immunised against venom 
by an aboriginal native of Guiana :'— 
“The Indian took, from a bottle which contained several of 
them, a tooth of the Grage (Lachesis atrox), an extremely poisonous 
snake, and with it made upon my instep three incisions about 
3 centimetres in breadth. He allowed the wounds to bleed for 
a minute. I then experienced a fainting sensation, and large drops 
of sweat rolled from my forehead. The wounds were next rubbed 
with a blackish powder. I have since learnt that this powder was 
composed of the liver and gall of the animal, dried in the sun and 
pounded up with the poison-glands. The blood immediately ceased 
to flow. The Indian chewed some leaves of a tree mixed with this 
powder, and, applying his lps to the sore, injected into it as much 
saliva as he could, making an effort as though to inflate a balloon. 
This completed the operation. 
‘Since then I have been bitten seven times by different species 
of very dangerous snakes, such as the Grage, coral-snake, &c., and 
have never even had an attack of fever. The Galibi, Boni, and 
Emerillon Indians, the Bosse negroes, and all the aboriginal natives 
of Guiana employ the same method of procedure. They even 
pretend that this kind of vaccination is transmissible to their off- 
spring, and that the hereditary immunity is maintained through 
several generations.” 
Some years ago Mons. d’Abbadie communicated to the Académie 
des Sciences” a note from Colonel Serpa Pinto relating to another 
method of vaccination employed by the natives of Mozambique, 
which the Colonel himself consented to undergo. 
' Revue scientifique, 1892, p. 254. 
* Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, February 24, 1896. 
