SNAKE DOCTORS. 
355 
Chap. XXI.—B. P.] 
sharp cuts with his machete, putting it out of the 
power of the “ barber’s pole ” to injure any one. 
This snake is very poisonous and ready to bite on the 
smallest provocation, and there is no doubt that had 
I moved in the least, I should have paid the full 
penalty. 
I mention my snake experience here because I am 
anxious to disabuse the public mind of the popular 
error that Mosquito swarms with venomous snakes; 
such is not the case, neither has the prevailing idea 
that the climate is deadly any foundation in truth; an 
intimate acquaintance has convinced me that in both 
eases proper precautions will go far to ensure im¬ 
punity. While on this subject, I must give a recipe 
for the cure of snake bites* much used in India; 
indeed, in the Bombay Presidency, it has been ordered 
to be kept ready at every police station. But, after 
a ll> pigs and fowls are the best protection the settler 
can have; these creatures are as deadly enemies to 
the snake in the clearings as the warry and peccary 
are to it in the dense forest. 
Nevertheless, I have tried very hard to discover the 
snake doctors’ secret, but without success; one thing 
is certain, that the decoction of a leaf is drunk, chewed, 
used as a poultice, and even swallowed. I suspect the 
# Liquor Ammonise Fortis.—Doses: For an adult, 35 drops in 
a wineglassful of water; twelve to fifteen years old, 20 to 25 drops in 
a full half ditto; eight to twelve years old, 15 to 20 drops in a small 
half ditto; four to eight years old, 10 to 15 drops in a full quarter 
ditto ; infants to four years old, 3 to 10 drops in a full quarter ditto. 
Besides snake bites, this remedy has been found to be a cure for 
hydrophobia in its worst form. 
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