64 THE LAND-MARKS OF 



'^'ta't'Ind* "that crushed centipede and spirit when applied 

 r^ommended. to the part always cured the injury done by a 

 centipede," that a tincture of spirit and cobra 

 should be tried in cobra-bite.f The flesh of viper 

 dressed as eels, was strongly recommended by 

 Galen as a remedy for elephantiasis* (leprosy), 

 and it is said that the flesh of the cobra was 

 prescribed in Bengal for wasting diseases, and the 



cacy of the poison of the crotalus horridua. 3os6 

 Maohada, aged 6fty years, originally a fine athletic man, 

 had been laid up in the hospital of Rio de Janeiro for 

 four years with elephantiasis in a form which obstinate- 

 ly resisted all treatment. The disease extended all over 

 his body, producing such loathsome disfigurement that 

 the unfortunate man eventually resolved to embrace the 

 alternative of subjecting his hand to the fang of the deadly 

 snake. Accompanied by his medical attendants (a cir- 

 cumstance th:it will strike European practitioners with 

 profound surprise), who had taken the precaution to se- 

 cure a declaration lu which the patient affirmed that he 

 acted entirely of his own free-will and against their ad- 

 vice — the unfortunate man proceeded to a house in which 

 a rattlesnake was kept caged. He put his hend to it and 



The bite of the grasped the animal firmly, which immediately buried' its 

 '»*cure"fo''/' fa-iigs in his fingers, without, however, causing him any 



elephantiasis, ggnsation of pain ; a result no doubt, due to the dieor- 



t This treatment was put to the test, and, of course, 

 failed. 



