14 OUR REPTILES. 



milk, and the stone is then again fit for use. This stone 

 has been from time immemorial in the family of Ventura, 

 of Corfu, a house of Italian origin, and is notorious, so that 

 peasants immediately apply for its aid. In a case where 

 two were stung at the same time by serpents, the stone was 

 applied to one, who recovered, but the other, for whom it 

 could not be used, died. It never failed but once, and then 

 it was applied after the twenty-four hours. Its colour is so 

 dark as not to be distinguished from black. 



In confirmation of the above, another writer 

 adds :* 



While in Corfu, where I resided some years, I became 

 slightly acquainted with the gentleman in question, Signor 

 Ventura, of the Strada Keale, Corfu. His family is, as 

 stated, of great antiquity in the island. He does not know 

 exactly when the stone first came into their possession, but 

 conjectures it was brought from India by one of his ances- 

 tors. I have myself never seen this remarkable stone, but 

 am fully satisfied as to its efficacy, as I have constantly 

 heard of people being cured by it ; in fact, the first thing 

 the Greeks do when bitten by a venomous snake, of which 

 there are several species in Greece, is to apply to Signor 

 Ventura. The stone is then applied, exactly in the manner 

 described above, and the patient in due time is cured. 



The instance alluded to where one died while it was being 

 used for another, is of a countryman who was bitten by the 

 viper while cutting myrtle or bay for church decoration. 

 He as soon as bitten ran to the town, distant some miles, 

 and arrived when the stone was in use. When it was pro- 

 cured for him, it would not adhere ; for it seems this singular 

 stone requires to rest in milk for some time, to vomit, as it 

 were, the poison absorbed. Before it was fit for use again 



A. M. Browne, in Science Gossip, Vol. i. p. 38. 



