POISONS AND THEIR PREVENTION 205 



In the face of such crude traditions upheld with 

 so much tenacity by the native population, it is 

 surprising that the Tunisian Anti-rabic Institute 

 has met with such a large measure of support in 

 the shape of applicants for admission, which, on 

 an average, number over one hundred annually. 

 The mortality amongst those treated closely ap- 

 proaches the satisfactory results obtained at the 

 Paris Institute, where the death-rate amounts to 

 about 0*38 per cent, of the persons treated. 



There is perhaps no more interesting chapter in 

 the history and literature of medicine than might 

 be compiled by searching out the early uses of 

 - drugs and the primitive application of methods in 

 the art of healing, and tracing their connection, if 

 possible, with the practices which are in vogue at 

 the present day. In the matter of toxins and 

 anti-toxins, or in respect to the modern theories of 

 preventive medicine, there would appear to be 

 a curious link between the methods based upon 

 elaborate scientific inquiries and those which arose 

 through simple experience and expediency. 



The idea of a poison, as the old proverb above 

 tells us, being a corrective for itself is no new idea, 

 for we read how in ancient times, for example, the 

 Ophiogenes of the Hellespont were renowned for 

 their immunity to snake poison, and one account 

 of them states particularly that they fed upon 



