REMARKS UPON THE A R1ST0 LOCHIA. 
145 
entirely recovered, I allowed her to depart. She called on the following morning to show 
herself. 
“The Snake unfortunately escaped, but the woman described it as a ‘Kala Samp,’ which 
is the term ordinarily used for the Kobra Kapelle. 
“I have written the above entirely from memory, the case having occurred eight or nine 
years ago. 
“A middle-aged woman was brought to my door in the early part of the rainy season, 
who had been bitten by a Snake at daybreak, while stooping down for the purpose of 
sweeping the floor. She called out to the people of the house that a rat had bitten her, 
and nothing more was thought of it, as her attention was directed to her infant, who became 
fractious for the breast. She accordingly went to bed to give the child sustenance, and 
not long afterwards complained of giddiness. It was suggested to her that a Snake might 
have bitten her, but she referred to a hole in the mud-wall from which the rat must have 
darted out. 
“Nothing further transpired until the household were alarmed on finding her in a state 
of insensibility, foaming at the mouth, and the infant at her breast. They were then 
convinced that a Snake must have done the mischief, and immediately carried her off to 
the charmer ! After detaining the woman for a full hour, the fellow coolly told her 
friends to take her off to the Commissioner, who would prescribe for her. The poor woman 
had been dead for some time before the incantations were finished. On arriving at my house, 
I found the deceased in a state of incipient decomposition, and, having heard the statement 
of her friends, directed them to take the body away for the performance of funeral rites, 
and to lose no time in bringing her infant, who was said to be suffering from the effects of the 
poison. 
“The poor thing reached my house in a state of insensibility, though not dead. Its head 
was hanging on its shoulder, and when raised beyond the perpendicular would fall on the 
opposite shoulder. The body was not cold, and that was the only indication that death had 
not supervened. I selected one of the smallest of the leaves of the Aristolochia , and pounded 
one-third of it, and, with a small table-spoonful of water, poured the solution into the stomach. 
After the lapse of four or five minutes the child heaved a deep sigh, opened its eyes wildly, 
gave a loud scream, and afterwards became quite composed. The child was brought to me on 
the following morning quite well/’ 
As this plant is so valuable, and seems likely to become an acknowledged remedy, a few 
lines may be spared for a short description of the species, and the mode of its action. 
The Aristolochia Indica is one species of a rather large genus, inhabiting many parts of 
the world, but being most plentiful in the hotter regions. It is a creeping plant, and the 
specimens grown by Mr. Lowther were trained upon a trellis-work, which they clothed with 
their narrow, abruptly pointed leaves. Another species of this group of plants, the Aristo- 
lochia serpentina , is not uncommmon in parts of North America, where it is known under the 
title of the Virginian Snake-root. An infusion of this plant is used as a specific against ague 
and liver affections. 
The fresh leaf of the Aristolochia Indica is, when tasted, very bitter and aromatic, bear- 
ing some resemblance to quinine in the clear searching quality of the bitter. It is remarkable 
that when persons are suffering from the poison of the Cobra, they describe it as being sweet. 
There is certainly a kind of sweetness in the leaf, for on chewing a dried leaf of this plant, 
kindly sent me by Sir W . Hooker, from the collection in the botanical gardens at Kew, I find 
it to be rather, but not very bitter, with a pungent aroma, something like that of the common 
ivy, and a faint, though decided sweetness as an after-flavor. 
It is not a universal specific, for when experiments were tried by getting some dogs 
bitten by the Cobra, and treating them with this leaf, they died to all appearance sooner 
than if they had been entirely neglected. Mr. Lowther has made rather a curious series 
of experiments on the Cobra’s poison and the mode of its action, and has found that while 
human beings become cold as marble under the influence of the venom, dogs are affected 
vol. in.— 19. 
