66 THE LAND-MARKS OF 



Sherley, recommended what he termed "Balsam 

 of Bats" as a remedy for hjrpochondria; it was 

 composed of "adders, bats, sucking-whelps, earth- 

 worms, hog's greese, the marrow of a stag, and 

 the thigh-bone of an ox." One would scarcely 

 have thought that such a mixture was calculated 

 snakMaa to give One an appetite. (Vide ''A Book about 

 Doctors.") The Santhals, Dhangars, Burmese, and 

 many natives of India partake of snakes as food. 



FeUx Fontana's For more than half a century the subiect of 



researches. ^ ^ . . 



snake-poisoning appears to have received little 

 attention, but in 1776, Felix Fontana, naturalist 

 to his Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Tus- 

 cany, and a very able man, published his re- 

 searches. While it is true that Francesco Redi 

 and Richard Mead were the pioneers of the sub- 

 ject, the value of their researches was nothing 

 as compared with that of Fontana's. He wrote 

 a most elaborate work setting forth the results 

 of his numerous experiments. He performed 

 "more than six thousand experiments, employed 

 upwards of three thousand vipers and had bit 

 more than four thousand animals." 



Discovery of After entering into some anatomical questions 



the poison- 



gland. regarding the fangs and the situation of the 



