CHAP. III.] SNAKE-STOMPS. 201 



blood which Mr. Faraday detected in the specimen 

 submitted to him was that of the Indian on whose per- 

 son the effect was exhibited on the occasion to which my 

 informant was an eye-witness. The snake-charmers from 

 the coast who visit Ceylon profess to prepare the snake- 

 stones for themselves, and preserve the composition as 

 a secret. Dr. Davy 1 , on the authority of Sir Alexander 

 Johnston, says the manufacture of them is a lucrative 

 trade, carriecMbn by the monks of Manilla, who supply 

 the merchants of India and his analysis confirms that 

 of Mr. Faraday. Of the three different kinds which 

 he examined one being of partially burnt bone, and 

 another of chalk, the third, consisting chiefly of vege- 

 table matter, resembled a bezoar, all of them (except 

 the first, which possessed a slight absorbent power) were 

 quite inert, and incapable of having any effect exclusive 

 of that on the imagination of the patient. Thunberg 

 was shown the snake-stone used by the boers at the 

 Cape in 1772, which was imported for them " from 

 the Indies, especially from Malabar," at so high a 

 price that few of the farmers could afford to possess 

 themselves of it ; he describes it as convex on one side, 

 black, and so porous that " when thrown into water, 

 it caused bubbles to rise ; " and hence, by its absorption, 

 it served, if speedily applied, to extract the poison from 

 the wound. 2 



1 Account of the Interior of Cey- \ horn from its envelope, when it 



Ion, ch. iii. p. 101. 



2 Thunberg, vol. i. p. 155. Since 

 the foregoing account was published, 



be ready for immediate use. In this 

 state it will resemble a solid black 

 fibrous substance, of the same shape 



I have received a note from Mr. ! and size as before it was subjected 



Hardy, relative to thepicdra ponsona, 



to this treatment. 



the snake-stone of Mexico, in which " USE. The wound being slightly 

 he gives the following account of the punctured, apply the bone to the 



method of preparing and applying it 

 " Take a piece of hart's horn of any 

 convenient size and shape ; cover it 

 well round with grass or hay, and 

 enclosing both in a thin piece of 

 sheet copper well wrapped round 

 them, and place the parcel in a char- 

 coal 

 charred. 



" When cold, remove the calcined 



i, and place the parcel in a char- 

 fire till the bone is sufficiently 



opening, to which it will adhere 

 firmly for the space of two minutes ; 

 and when it falls, it should be re- 

 ceived into a basin of water. It 

 should then be dried in a cloth, and 

 again applied to the wound. But it 

 will not adhere longer then about 

 one minute. In like manner it may 

 be applied a third time ; but now it 

 will fall almost immediately, and 



