cases occurring in La Vendée and La Loire
Inférieure, noted by Dr. Viandgrandmarais, twenty-
four were fatal; of the twenty-four deadly cases,
fifteen befel children, six women, and three
men. Prompt intelligent treatment would have
saved the lives of twenty in the twenty-four.
The sting— for it is more aptly called sting
than bite, seeing that the sharp darting fang
has neither the form nor function of a tooth
— makes a minute, scarcely visible puncture,
less painful at the instant than the sting of a
wasp. Presently the wounded part, oftenest at
the extremities, begins to swell; the swelling
extends up the limb, on which livid spots
appear; nausea, vomiting, dimness of sight,
vertigo, nervous spasms, prostration, insensibility,
are the following symptoms of the progress of
the virus through the system. The recovered
patient is liable to a return of them in milder
form— a sort of anniversary celebration of his
accident— for years after, at the season
corresponding to that of its original occurrence.

A few simple remedial measures are worth
noting here. First and foremost, prevention and
cure in one, is cauterisation with the hot iron;
nitrate of silver and other chemical caustics are
next best worth "exhibition." If you are wounded
at an hour's distance from village doctor, apothecary,
or blacksmith, bind your handkerchief,
neckerchief, knapsack strap, or what not— not
too tightly— about the limb, a few inches above
the wounded part; suck it, open it freely with
penknife, and squeeze out the blood; plunge it in
cold water. Then if you have a flask of brandy or
other spirituous refreshment at hand, drink freely;
if tobacco in any shape, masticate fiercely without
expectoration. In other words, take any stimulant
(don't forget coffee, in France), sudorific,
or vomitive, and remember that you can safely
bear a triple dose. The cold water checks
rapidity of absorption in the system, and may
coax out a portion of the virus. In parts of the
southern states of North America, on some
Georgia plantations, for instance, infested by
rattlesnakes, it is customary for the overseer,
when he goes a-field with the slaves, to provide
a jug of whisky, or a phial of ammonia or
"alkali," for instant application within and
without in case of accidents. Phials filled with
similar antidotes, and furnished with a
sharp-pointed stopple to carry the healing liquid
directly into the wound, I think you may now
purchase of the apothecaries at Nantes. Finally,
and as quickly as possible, go to the next
medical man. The "natural doctor," in his
default, may be consulted. You will find one in
most villages, generally a shrewd old
practitioner, with a reputation of being a bit of a
sorcerer.

It is hardly a century ago (1752) since Dr.
Carlhan, chief of the hospital St. Barbe, at
Belfort, making large use of vipers in his pharmacy,
tried to acclimate them in a neighbouring
ground. The receipt of the Theriaca
Andromachi, a famous antidote, to which Andromachus,
Nero's body-physician, added vipers for
increase of efficacy, was preserved in the British
Pharmacopœia till the beginning of this century.
Dr. Hebard's proposition for rejecting it was
carried, in a most learned assembly, by only
fourteen voices against thirteen. Dr. Paris,
writing in 1825 about this venerable farrago of
seventy-two ingredients, says: " The Codex
Medicamentum of Paris still cherishes this
many-headed monster of pharmacy in all
its pristine deformity, under the appropriate
title of Electuarium opiatum polupharmacum."
There is still a pretty trade between Parisian
dealers and viper-hunters in the provinces; a
part of the venomous wares goes to the
composition of the ancient theriacs, a part enters into
the little pills of modern homœopathy. Similia
similibus curantur. Viper broth is a favourite
prescription with the Guérisseurs de Venins,
Rebouteurs, Conjureurs, Sorciers, and other
such-titled undiplomaed professors of the
healing art.

Happily for the lay commonalty, besides
prefects and apothecaries, French vipers have
numerous natural enemies. The park of
Château Vilain, writes Madame Passy, being
most perilously infested, the proprietor
introduced a squadron of wild boars, who soon made
a promenade there tolerably safe. But the park
was also remarkable for its excellent truffle
grounds. The boars being fine gourmands, and
preferring serpents aux truffes to serpents au
naturel, made as sad havoc with the delicate
vegetables as with the vipers, and in 1857 were
killed off for their greed. Thereupon the pests
increased again so rapidly, that two years later
other boars were turned on again, to restore a
tolerable balance of evil powers. That
highly-intelligent, grossly-maligned companion of man,
whom, at least in stomach—an essential part
— he resembles more closely than any other of our
inferior fellow-creatures, the domestic swine,
fairly dotes on snakes. American crotals, Gallic
aspic, venomous or innocuous, they are all
welcome grist to his mill. If, perchance, they
manage to prick through his tough hide, they
are like to lose their fangs for their pains, while
the virus rests a harmless deposit in the
underlying fat. They are equally foiled by the fur
and bristles of badgers and hedgehogs. Dogs,
unless trained to the business, do not seek the
conflict, and are constant victims of attack.

I have grateful memory of a canine comrade
of boyish strolls in New England woods in
pursuit of berries, nuts, and the end of holidays;
of a short bureau-legged, tight-crimped tailed,
parti-coloured dog, the mongrel goal of as many
and multiplexly criss-crossed races as enter into
the ancestral composition of any modern resultant
European nationality. He was, to use the
figurative language of the country, " death on
snakes." With ears erect, sharp prefatory
bark, and eyes alight with Napoleonic glance
at the situation of the hostile body, he would
spring and catch it by the middle, then whisk it
to and fro, like a Gorgon's flying tress, with such
rapid violence that before the unlucky ophidian
could collect his senses they were fairly shaken
out of him. Being presently done with the first