NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 221 



Notwithstarxding this concurrence of opinion, the viper- 

 catchers of the latter part of the last century used olive- 

 oil as an infallible remedy, and I have myself seen it 

 exhibited in the case of a dog which was severely bitten 

 in the leg by one of these serpents. The oil may be a 

 specific against the bite of the common viper only ; for 

 it should be remembered that Linnaeus, when in Scania, 

 w^as ap23lied to by a woman who had been bitten by a 

 cJiersea. He administered the oil according to the pre- 

 scribed forms, but the poor woman died in the greatest 

 agonies. This remedy seems, however, to be effectual 

 aofainst the acrid exudations which emanate from the 

 pustules of a toad. White relates that a quack ate one 

 of those reptiles at Selborne to make the country people 

 stare, and that afterwards he drank oil. 



But Dr. Mead was a physician deserving of all confi- 

 dence, and we shall see that even in his mode of treat- 

 ment the oil is not discarded. 



The Doctor, then, tells us that ' the first thing to be 

 done upon the bite of a viper of any kind is, that the 

 patient should suck the wound himself, if he can come 

 at it ; if he cannot, another person should do this good 

 office for him. Whoever does it, ought (to prevent any 

 inflammation of the lips and tongue, from the heat of 

 the poison) to wash his mouth well beforehand with 

 warm oil, and hold some of this in the mouth while the 

 suction is performing.^ 



After this he prescribes an emetic {Rad. Ipecaciian), 

 ' encouraged in the working with oil and warm water." 



This is comformable, as he observes, to the practice of 

 the Virginian Indians, who were said to cure the bite of 

 the rattlesnake by sucking the wound, and taking imme- 

 diately a large quantity of a decoction of the rattlesnake 

 root, which acts as a strong emetic, and laying to the part 

 the same root chewed. Piso states that the Indians use as 

 remedies against the bite of that snake and others, the 



