DOG BITES AND SNAKE POISONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2193, 13 January 1886, Page 2

DOG BITES AND SNAKE POISONS.

. M. Pasteur's recent discovery of a cusf for hydrophobia (says a Home paper) has naturally 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 is so the deadly bito of the snake.ia- the hydrophobia of the East. Duringhis recent exploration of the Kal- ; nhari "desert Mr Farini found that tho natives.with whom he was thrown into cdntaotinvaribly carried a pouoh of deadly, dried snake poison as an antidote to the ' bite of a snako. The following account of '■ a conversation which one of our staff had ' with Mr Farini may not be ma\ a propos : -"While exploring tho Kalahari," said Farini, "where extremely poisionous snakes abound, several cases of the nude natives being bitten by them came under my notice, and strange to say, the untutored savage, although not knowing anything about similk simttibmMfatur, cure themselves by inoculating winßthw virus. There is not,a native or a hunter that does not carry either the driod body of a deadly poisonous reptile called Fanboo, the poison sacks of the puff adder, yellow cobra, or capella. The modus operandi' is this: —As soon as possible after being bitten they make slight incisions close il where tho poison fangs entered, into . which they sprinkle some of tho dried and powdored virus. ' The first effect is to induce sleepiness, the swelling soon goes down, and in a day or two they are as ' well as ever. Three of my oxen were bitten, and cured by inoculation. One' case of the Bushman who had cured the oxen I must specially- mention. He boasted of not being, afraid of being bitten, One day while walking ahead of the waggons I discovered a full-grown capella lying under a bush. I called the. * bushman and asked the bushman to catch it, if he was not afraid of being bitten. Ho replied he would if I would give' him a roll of tobacco, 'I refused, not wishing, to be accessory to his death. |AVhile' I was. .waiting ■ for the'.Jßiver's whip to despatch the snake, thWßush--man gave tho reptilo a kick with hi? bare foot, and the horrible thing bit him. But the Bushman coolly took from al ittle skin pouch some poison sacks, gut a piece. off and reduced it; to powder, pricked his foot near the punoture, which had commenced to swell, and rubbed the t virus powder in ; one of the other Busfe** men who had killed the snako aflS extracts.! the poison cysts, handed one of them to him; he squeezed a drop of poisin out of it into some water and drank It; he Beemed to fall into a kind ofstupour, in which he remained soma hours. At first the swelling increased rapidly, but began to subside after some hours; next morning ho inoculated him- • self again; that night the swelling had completely dissappeared, and the fourth day he seomed as as well as ever, and claimed the roll of tobacco." Mr Farini took the precaution to bring home the poison of several snakes, and a portion of a N'anboo, which he is sending to experiment with.