FATAL EXPERIMENT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 25, Issue 3760, 25 May 1936, Page 3

FATAL EXPERIMENT

BELIEF IN SNAKE-BITE CURE

Belief that snake venom would cure him of tuberculosis has caused the death at Beaufort West, Cape Province, of Jack Valentine, a 29-year-old Englishman, whose home was in Paignton, Devon. Valentine had only recently arrived from England. He heard there was a snake in the garden, so he went out and caught it with his bare hands. The reptile, a deadly ringhals, bit him in the arm.

Friends rushed out to his aid, but Valentine, kept them at a distance with the writhing snake, which he was still holding, and asked them iiot to interfere, as he wanted to be cured. Shifting his grip away from the snake’s head, he allowed it to bite him again five times on the wrist, then nonchalently he walked up the garden path and threw the reptile, which measured 4ft., into the street, where it was quickly killed by an excited crowd. As he entered the house Valentine Is reported to have remarked: “You see, lam quite all right. My faith in this and the Bible will cure me.” He refused medical aid, and made a statement completely exonerating doctors from all responsibility. A little while later he became unconscious and died.