296 ANTIDOTES FOR SNAKE-BITES. 



Cutting away, or applying caustic to the wounded part, 

 if promptly and unhesitatingly done, is also likely to prevent 

 fatal consequences. 



Europeans have usually recourse to eau de luce, five drops 

 of which is administered to the patient in a glass of water 

 every ten minutes until the poison is counteracted. Eau de 

 luce is also applied externally. Another very good plan is 

 to scarify T\dth a knife the wound, and then boldly to suck 

 it. Care, however, must be taken that one has no sore about 

 the lips or mouth. Sweet milk, oil, or spirits „of hartshorn 

 must then be applied to the wound. The patient should also 

 be made to drink freely of sweet milk. 



In the Cape Colony, the Dutch farmers resort to a cruel 

 but apparently effective plan to counteract the bad effects of 

 a serpent's bite. An incision having been made in the breast 

 of a living fowl, the bitten part is applied to the wound. If 

 the poison be very deadly, the bird soon evinces symptoms of 

 distress, "becomes drowsy, droops its head, and dies." It is 

 replaced by a second, a third, and more if requisite. When, 

 however, the bird no longer exhibits any of the signs just 

 mentioned, the patient is considered out of danger. A frog 

 similarly applied is supposed to be equally efficacious. 



A certain white bean found in some parts of the colony 

 (designated, somewhat singularly, the gentleman bean) has 

 also been known to cure the bites of serpents and other pois- 

 onous creatures. Thus a Damara woman who had been 

 stung by a scorpion was once brought to Mr. Hahn with her 

 whole body very much swollen and inflamed. She was al- 

 ready in such a state as to be unable to walk. He instantly 

 divided one of the beans in question, and applied it to the 

 wound, to which it adhered with such tenacity as only to be 

 removed by force. When the virus was extracted, the bean 

 dropped off of its own accord, and the woman, after a time, 

 thoroughly recovered. 



" As an antidote against the bite of serpents," says Thun- 



