238 VENOMS 



to be in possession of means to preserve themselves from snake- 

 bites, vphich are just as ridiculous and infallible as the procedure 

 described above. 



The archives of a criminal anthropology contain the story of 

 a Lyonnese gold-seeker, who had himself immunised against venom 

 by an aboriginal native of Guiana :^ — 



" The Indian took, from a bottle which contained several of 

 them, a tooth of the Grage {Lachesis atrox), an extremely poisonous 

 snake, and with it made upon my instep three incisions about 

 3 centimetres in breadth. He allowed the wounds to bleed for 

 a minute. I then experienced a fainting sensation, and large drops 

 of sweat rolled from my forehead. The wounds were next rubbed 

 with a blackish powder. I have since learnt that this powder was 

 composed of the liver and gall of the animal, dried in the sun and 

 pounded up with the poison-glands. The blood immediately ceased 

 to flow. The Indian chewed some leaves of a tree mixed with this 

 powder, and, applying his lips to the sore, injected into it as much 

 saliva as he could, making an effort as though to inflate a balloon. 

 This completed the operation. 



" Since then I have been bitten seven times by different species 

 of very dangerous snakes, such as the Grage, coral-snake, &c., and 

 have never even had an attack of fever. The Galibi, Boni, and 

 Emerillon Indians, the Bosse negroes, and all the aboriginal natives 

 of Guiana employ the same method of procedure. They even 

 pretend that this kind of vaccination is transmissible to their off- 

 spring, and that the hereditary immunity is maintained through 

 several generations." 



Some years ago Mons. d'Abbadie communicated to the Academie 

 des Sciences ^ a note from Colonel Serpa Pinto relating to another 

 method of vaccination employed by the natives of Mozambique, 

 which the Colonel himself consented to undergo. 



1 Bevue soientifique, 1892, p. 254. 



^ Comptes rendus de V Academie des Sciences, February 24, 1896. 



