‘ A hair of the dog that bit you ’ is a phrase, though now confined to a symbolic and alcoholic interpretation, which has an accurately canine origin. In the Caucasus it is still common for any one who is bitten by a dog to lay a handful of hair taken from the same animal’s coat upon the wound before cauterising and bandaging it. In some mystic way the hair is supposed to prevent untoward consequences.’ The efficacy of this usage is referred to by Pliny, (‘ Nat. Hist., xxix., c. v., sub init.) Holland’s translation has : ‘And there bee some againe, who burne the haires of the same mad doggs taile, and conveigh their ashes handsomely in some tent of lint into the wound.— Tome ii., page 362, 1601.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/KAIST18940710.2.32.2
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Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 754, 10 July 1894, Page 6
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127Page 6 Advertisements Column 2 Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 754, 10 July 1894, Page 6
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