Hi CURES FOR SNAKE-BITE 



All this did not happen in some obscure village 

 in a remote jungle. It happened within a mile and 

 a half of a town controlled by a municipal corpora- 

 tion which enjoys the rights and privileges of 

 " local self-government." In that town there was 

 a dispensary, with a very capable assistant-surgeon 

 in charge, and in that dispensary I doubt not you 

 would have found a bottle of strong liquor ammonia 

 and a printed copy of the directions issued by a 

 paternal Government for the recovery of persons 

 bitten by venomous serpents. But when the man 

 was bitten the one thing which occurred to nobody 

 was to take him there, and when I heard of the 

 matter the assistant-surgeon had just left for a dis- 

 tant place, passing on his way the gate of the house 

 in which the man lay. This was a bad case, but 

 there is little reason to hope that it was altogether 

 exceptional. I am afraid there can be no question 

 at all that hundreds of the deaths put down to 

 snake-bite by village punchayets every year might 

 with more truth be registered as " cured to death." 



