SNAKE BITE AND ITS ANTIDOTE. 
451 
SNAKE BITE AND ITS ANTIDOTE—VI. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH CROTALUS VENOM AND REPUTED ANTI¬ 
DOTES, WITH NOTES ON THE SALIVA OF HELODERMA 
(“GILA MONSTER.”) 
By H. C. Yarrow, M.D., Curator Dept. Reptiles, U. S. National Museum. 
(From Forest and Stream.) 
( Continued from 'page 425.) 
Dr. P. Harlan, in Tr. Am. Phil. Soc., Philadelphia, 1828, n. 
s., III., 300, gives an interesting account of various antidotes 
used in rattlesnake bites. The Prenanthis serpentaria of Pursh, 
called lion’s foot, is said to have cured moccasin bites seen by 
Pursh himself; but these may have been harmless water mocca 
sins. The Assembly of South Carolina purchased from a negro 
a secret remedy, the man allowing himself to be bitten by a num¬ 
ber of snakes, jumping naked into a tub of snakes. He cured 
himself by swallowing tablespoonful doses of the Alisma plantago 
expressed juice, repeating it until the effects of the poison were 
counteracted. A number of experiments were tried with a decoc¬ 
tion of Hieraceum venosum , a secret remedy purchased from itin¬ 
erant showmen, one of whom allowed snakes to bite him several 
times. He swallowed a few ounces of a decoction of the root 
and held the raw neck of the snake over the bite, the head hav¬ 
ing been cut off. The Hieraceum venosum is vulgarly known as 
hawk’s weed, adder’s tongue, poor robin’s plantain, rattlesnake 
weed, etc. Man entirely recovered, but venom from same snake 
killed a pup. Local symptoms existed in man’s case. He winds 
up by stating: “ Had I occasion to treat a wound inflicted by a 
poisonous reptile my faith in the Hieraceum venosum as a cure is 
not such as to induce me to resort to its employment to the ex¬ 
clusion of the less equivocal means of suction, pressure or liga¬ 
ture.” He supposed the animals had been so long in captivity as 
not to have much venom. 
With regard to the Alisma plantago, it was used in Dr. 
Horner’s case and failed to have the slightest antidotal effect. 
In 1873 appeared a curious little book by S. P. Higgins, S. 
A., honorary member of the Homeopathic Institute of the United 
