PASTEUR FORESTALLED.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2412, 29 September 1886, Page 2

PASTEUR FORESTALLED.

tp. the Olobo: for hith*erto r unmanageablemaliSdies cal science, it is a coincidence to be inlor-,.' med by Mr Q. A. Farini," in his; book, " Through the Kalahari Desert," that the bushtiian of South Africa habitually practice this method with snake venom afc ; a cure for the bite. Thus we incidentally obtain corroborative evidence of the. custom to which 1 alluded in a paper. " Inovulation for snake bite," in Tho Globe of 31st March last. On that ■ occasion reference was made to .some natives of tho Southern Coast of 4 Mexico and in Dutch Guiana who adopted. this preventative inoculation, and in tho* ' latter country by precisely the method as that described by Mr Faring/namely, extracting the poisonous glad®, of the deadly snakes, drying and jmlvtiSp' int; them, and using this powder .to rub into a wound caused by an abrasion of the -skin. It would seem that as the entire gland is dried aud thus used, the veuom by this means uiuet become modified, or . "attenuated" as in the ease with the rabific virau prepared by M. Pasteur. Other trailers have alluded to the protective means which the bushuieii adopt, but Mr Farini's evidence at the proient moment possesses much practical interest.