DOG BITES AND SNAKE POISONS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1450, 5 January 1886, Page 3

DOG BITES AND SNAKE POISONS.

Jf. Pasteur's recent discovery of a cure for hydrophobia (says a Home paper) has natarally attracted the attention of the world to the quiet laboratory in which the great scientist conducts his experiments. While in Europe the fatal bite of the mad dog ia dreaded, so the doadly bite of the snake is the hydrophobia of the East. During his recent exploration of the Kalahari Desert, Mr Farini found that the natives with whom he wag thrown into contact invariably carried a pouch of deadly dried snake poison as an antidote to the bite of the snake. The following L account of a conversation which one of K onr staff had with Mr Farini may not be a propos :—" While exploring the said Mr Farini, " where poisonous snakes abound, cases of the nude natives being "bitten by them came under my notice, and, strange to say, the untutored savage, although Dot knowing anything about timUiasimilibutcurantur, cure themselves by inoculating with other virus. There is not a native or a hunter that does not carry either the dried body of a deadly poisonous reptile called N'anboo, the poison sacks of the puff adder, yellow cobra, or capella, Their modus operandi is this:—As soon as possible after being bitten they make slight incisiona close to where the poison fangs entered, into which they sprinkle Borne of the dried and powdered virus. The first effect is to induce sleepiness, the swelling soon goes down, and in a day or two they are j as well as ever. Three of my oxen were bitten, and cured by inoculation. One case of the bush man who had cured my oxen I must specially mention. He | boasted of not beine; afraid of being bitten. One day while walking ahead of the waggons 1 discovered a full-grown capella lying under a bush. I cal/ed the bushman and asked him to catch it if he was not afraid of being bitten. He repliid he would if 1 would give him a roll of tobacco. I refused, not wishing to be accessory to his death. While I was waiting for the driver's whip to despatch the snake, the bushman gave the reptile a kick with his bare foot, and the horrible thing bit him. But the bushman coolly took from a little skin pouch some poißon sacks, cut a piece off and reduced it to powder, pricked his foot near the puncture, which had commenced to swell, and rubbed the virus powder in ; one of the Other bushmen, who had killed the snake and extracted the poison cysts, handed one of them to him; he squeezed a drop of poison out of it into some water and drank it; he seemed to fall into a kind of •tupor, in which he remained some hours. At first the swelling increased rapidly, but began to subside after some hours ; next morning he inoculated himself again ; that night the swelling had completely disappeared, and the fourth day he seemed as well as ever, and claimed the roll of tobacco." Mr Farini took the precaution to bring home the poison of several snakes, and the portion of a N'anboo, which he is sending to M. Pasteur to experiment with.