330 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



firm faith in it. Snakes had bitten her, she declared, and she 

 had proven the remedy to be genuine. " All you have got to do 

 is, if a snake bites you on the foot, to get some good Stockholm 

 tar and smear a ring of it round your leg on the skin between the 

 bitten spot and the heart." " You see," said the lady, " the tar 

 on the skin prevents the poison going past. It drives it back, 

 and it runs out with a lot of black blood from the wounds in- 

 flicted by the snake." This wasn't all. She had another sure 

 cure. " If a snake should bite you, catch a fowl or a pigeon, 

 split it open, and hold its warm flesh to the site of the bite. The 

 flesh will draw out all the poison." This latter " cure " I have 

 found to be firmly believed in by a large section of the farming 

 class. This belief comes up through the ages from the classic 

 times of Pliny, who says, " Cocks' flesh applied while still warm 

 neutralizes the venom of snakes." 



So-called Cures which Kill. 



To the medical man it is alarming how the public swallow 

 drugs without knowing anything of their properties. Great 

 doses of most potent medicinal substances are taken with 

 the object of curing some complaint, or for the treatment of 

 snake bite. There can be no doubt that considerable numbers of 

 people are killed, and others ruined physically for life by swallow- 

 ing drastic dnigs, the properties of which, and their effects upon 

 the organs and tissues of the body, they are profoundly ignorant. 



In treating cattle, farmers will often make a concoction of 

 the most poisonous of substances and pour it into the sick beast. 

 If the animal should eventually recover, the farmer triumphantly 

 heralds his cure all over the neighbourhood. 



Some so-called snake bite antidotes which I have been told 

 are often administered, would certainly seriously upset the 

 individual to whom any of them were given, if they did not 

 actually kill him. One of the antidotes is the drinking of a 

 mixture of paraffin, Stockholm tar, and salt. Another is pipe 

 oil, and a bottle of brandy neat. 



Eau-de-Luce. 

 Eau-de-luce at one time was generally believed to be the 

 finest thing known for the cure of snake bite. It was adminis- 

 tered by the medical profession. Any one doubting its efficacy 



