380 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, vol. XVII. 



Karens using the gall-bladder of the python for medicinal purposes, and 

 that the flesh is eaten by them and " indeed looks white, and 

 tempting." 



Carl Bock* makes mention of the Dyaks using the fat of the boa 

 constrictor [Python reticulatus f ) in ointments, and says they eagerly 

 pursue the snake for this purpose. Andersonf has the following of 

 the African race the Namaques : — " Many Namaques believe that the 

 ' f ondara possesses certain medicinal virtues, therefore when they succeed 

 " in killing the reptile" (probably from his description Python nata- 

 lensis), " its flesh is carefully preserved. If a person falls sick, a portion 

 " is either applied externally in the form of an unction, or given to the 

 " patient in a decoction." 



In Chambers' Journal! a writer speaking of Brazilian snakes says, 

 anent the rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) i "the fat of its entrails is 

 " said to be a sovereign remedy for rheumatism," and ' : the Museum of 

 Natural History" § says that the fat of the Brazilian " Cucuriuba " 

 {Eunectes murinus) is melted down and used for various purposes, as in 

 rheumatic pains, sprains, etc. Only recently 2nd Grade Assistant 

 Surgeon Har Prasad, an intelligent and well educated native, told mo 

 that he once had a case of insanity which he treated by the ordinary 

 methods in vogue in English practice, but with no beneficial results for 

 two months, at the expiry of which time the relatives begged him to 

 allow a hakim to come in and adopt a native method of treatment. 

 Acceding to their request this man administered cobra poison mixed 

 with vegetable substances into a paste, which he smeared thickly all 

 over the scalp, with the result that a speedy cure was eifected. 



Fayrer|| quotes the following on the authority of a learned Kabiraje, 

 showing that cobra venom is extensively used by that caste as a thera- 

 peutic agent. 



Physiological action. — "It is warm, irritant, stimulating, a promoter 

 " of the virtues of other medicines, antispasmodic, digestive, a promoter 

 " of the action of the secreting organs." 



Therapeutical action. — " Used in the later stage of low forms of fever 

 "when other remedies fail, it accelerates the heart's action, and diffuses 



* " The Head Hunters of Borneo," p. 252. 



T " Lake N garni, " p. 300. 



J Feb. 24, 1894. 



§ Vol. II., p. 58. 



|| " Thanatophidia," p. 148. 



