AN INFALLIBLE SNAKF-BITE REMEDY.
It has teanspircd that the " infallible remedy " used by " Brasher " Mills, the well-known Gew Forest snake-catcher, for the bite of the adder or viper, is the fat of the creature itself melted, bottled, and applied a drop at a time to the wound. The cure, he asserts is an affair of two minutes. Mills has, of course, had immense experience with snakes, having in his day, killed or taken more than 4,000 venomous and 27,000 harmless specimens. The question is whether his treatment is merely a survival of the old savage homoeopathy which ordains the hair of the dog that bit you as a cure for a bite, or whether it is a rude form of serum treatment. Vipers are exceedingly quarrelsome from the moment they break the egg, and unless immune against penum would long ago have ceased the exist as a distinct species. Hence their fat may be a kind of antitoxin. Of course all fatty and oily substances are useful against poisons which they doubtless absorb and isolate. The old-fashioned "London viper catchers," mentioned by White, of Selborne, and others always employed hot oil as a cure or treatment for snake-bite, and, as the ' Lancet ' remarks, this with ammonia continues to be recommended. Fat was anciently used to frighten away serpants from gardens and houses.
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Bibliographic details
Lake County Press, Issue 1063, 7 May 1903, Page 3
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222AN INFALLIBLE SNAKF-BITE REMEDY. Lake County Press, Issue 1063, 7 May 1903, Page 3
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