222 LEAVES FROM THE 



crushed head of the serpent applied as a plaister to the 



wound, round which they place the green leaves of the 



tobacco plant. 



Celsus recommends the application of dry salt to the 



wound ; and this Dr. Mead thinks promises somewhat 



more than the cautery, but not much. The so-called 



virtues of the celebrated Oriental snake-stones, said to 



be taken from the head of the cobra de capello, are mere 



fallacies. 



This (says Dr. Mead) Signer Recli, Monsieur Charas, and myself 

 have experienced. They will, indeed, when applied, stick to the 

 wound for some time ; being, as appears from their make, not 

 natural but factitious bodies, compounded most probably of calcined 

 bones and some testaceous substances mixed together ; but when 

 they drop off, are found to have imbibed nothing of the venom. 



The remedy of the viper-catchers, long kept by them 

 a close secret, finds greater favour in the eyes of the 

 Doctor. Depending upon their specific, those employed 

 in this trade, which in the days of viper-broth and viper- 

 wine was very brisk, were no more afraid of a bite than 

 of a common puncture, curing themselves immediately 

 by the application of the axungia viperina to the wound, 

 and to this day viper's fat boiled doAvn is considered in 

 some countries equally infallible; thus, as in the case of 

 applying the crushed head of the serpent to the wound 

 that it had made, exhibiting the union of the bane and 

 the antidote in the same body. 



Dr. Mead enraged a viper and caused it to bite a dog- 

 in the nose. Both teeth were struck deep in. The dog 

 howled bitterly, and the part began to swell. The Doc- 

 tor diligently applied the axungia, and next day the 

 dog was very well. 



But, unfortunately for this poor dog, some of the scep- 

 tical gentlemen who saw the experiment, ascribed the 

 cure more to the dog's saliva administered in licking 

 himself than to the virtue of the fat. So he was bit 

 again in the tongue and the remedy withheld. He died 



