USE OF SNAKE-POISON IN MEDICINE. 151 
in epilepsy arising from cold, it relieves the patient of insen- 
sibility and forgetfulness, two well-marked symptoms de- 
veloped by this disease. 
Some practitioners state that it is used in cases of snake- 
poisoning, where the body is cold and the heart’s action 
hardly sensible. In these cases its use is said to produce 
a flow of blood to the distant capillaries in which circu- 
lation had ceased, thus diffusing warmth over the whole 
surface. Subsequently antidotes are used which circulating 
with the blood are diffused over the whole system. Antidotes, 
unless mixed with the poison, cannot be introduced into the 
system by reason of the cessation of the circulation. Aore- 
over, snake-poison is the only medicine that can produce instan- 
taneous effects on the whole system; for this reason also the anti- 
dotes are mixed with the poison. The Kabirdje says, he 
believes certain vegetable and mineral poisons are rather 
proper antidotes to snake-poisons, and vice versa, as the latter 
cause determination of blood to the brain, and thereby affect 
the nervous system; whereas the vegetable and mineral sub- 
stances used as antidotes, mostly cause determination of blood 
to the alimentary canal, and thereby change the position of 
the congestion from the brain to the alimentary canal. 
The Bish Badis* in general use among the Kabirdjes are 
of three kinds, and are called: 
No. 1. Stichikabarana. 
2. Aghora-nrisinha-rasa. 
3. Pratdpa-lankeshvara. 
No. 1 is prepared in two ways.—First method: A sort of 
black sulphuretted mercury, 2 parts; burnt oxidized lead, 1 
part ; aconite, 1 part ; snake-poison, 1 part. These ingredients, 
all reduced to a powder, mixed, and subjected to a process in 
* Mixtures of antidotes and poisons. 
