64 VACCINE MATTER OF SNAKE POISON. 



draught a pint or more of whiskey without being drunk. 

 If the rattlesnake is'old, and has attained to the length of 

 five feet,and arrived at the full force of poisonous secre 

 tion, the natives say that not even whiskey will save the 

 life of the patient, but that, if fairly bitten, he must die. 

 My meditations on butterflies and snakes were for a 

 moment interrupted by the swift flight of a passing bird, 

 and, catching up my gun, I killed that beautiful little 

 bird, the sparrow-hawk of America; in plumage some 

 thing like our female kestrel-hawk, but more pretty and 

 much less, being about the size of the English hobby. 

 Brutus brought the bird to me, and my attendant seemed 

 deeply impressed with the goodness of the shot from a 

 gun that had not been previously to my shoulder. 



Having reloaded my gun, I again commenced conver 

 sation with my attendant as to all he ever knew or had 

 heard of in regard to the bites of snakes, and he was the 

 first of many men I questioned who I found had never 

 heard of the death of a cow, calf, ox, or bull from the 

 bite of a venomous reptile ; nor could I afterwards dis 

 cover that any native, white or red, ever suspected while 

 out on the plains that he met with the carcass of a bison 

 or buffalo that had died from such Effects. Men there 

 were that assured me that horses and mules had died 

 from the bites of rattlesnakes; but as to kine, though 

 they had known swelled faces and swelled legs from what 

 they suspected was the bite of a snake, they had never 

 known one to die. The question then arises and to it 

 I would invite the notice of my friend Mr Buckland, of 

 the Second Life Guards whether or not the vaccine 

 matter from the cow may not contain a specific against 

 this poison of the snake to the extent to which it certainly 

 annuls the virulence of the small-pox, and probably 



