truly injected. I invariably asked first how long it was since the
infliction of the bite; I would then examine the marks, and as a rule
would find them very slight. When the patient had been brought some
distance, I knew at once that it was a case of pure fright. The natives
wrap themselves up in their cloths or blankets at night, and lie down
on the floors of their huts. Turning about, or getting up for water or
tobacco, or perhaps to put fuel on the fire, they unluckily tread on a
snake, or during sleep they roll over on one. The snake gives them a
nip, and scuttles off. They have not seen what sort of snake it is, but
their imagination conjures up the very worst. After the first outcry,
when the whole house is alarmed, the man sits down firmly possessed by
the idea that he is mortally bitten. Gradually his fears work the
effect a real poisonous bite would produce. His eye gets dull, his
pulse grows feeble, his extremities cold and numb, and unless forcibly
roused by the bystanders he will actually succumb to pure fright, not
to the snake-bite at all. My chief care when a case of this sort was
brought me, was to assume a cheery demeanour, laugh to scorn the fears
of the relatives, and tell them he would be all right in a few hours if
they attended to my directions. This not uncommonly worked by
sympathetic influence on the patient himself. I believe, so long as all
round him thought he was going to die, and expected no other result,
the same effect was produced on his own mind. As soon as hope sprang up
in the breasts of all around him, his spirit also caught the contagion.
As a rule, he would now make an effort to articulate. I would then
administer a good dose of sal volatile, brandy, eau-de-luce, or other
strong stimulant, cut into the supposed bite, and apply strong nitric
acid to the wound. This generally made him wince, and I would hail it
as a token of certain recovery. By this time some confidence would
return, and the supposed dying man would soon walk back sound and whole
among his companions after profuse expressions of gratitude to his