Caffraria)
1796.Of the remedies to which cures of venomous bites are often ascribed in India, some
are certainly not less frivolous than those employed in Europe for the bite of the viper; yet to infer from
thence that the effects of the poison cannot be very dangerous, would not be more rational than to ascribe
the recovery of a person bitten by a Cobra de Capello, to the application of a snake-stone, or to the
words muttered over the patient by a Bramin.Patrick Russell, Account of Indian Serpents, 77.
1820.Another
kind of snake-stone
was a small oval body, smooth and shining, externally black, internally
grey; it had no earthy smell when breathed on, and had no absorbent or adhesive power. By the person
who presented it to Sir Alexander Johnstone it was much valued, and for adequate reason if true, it
had saved the lives of four men. Dr. Davy, in As. Res. xiii. 318.
1860.The use of the Pamboo-
Kaloo, or snake-stone, as a remedy in cases of wounds by venomous serpents, has probably been
communicated to the Singhalese by the itinerant snake-charmers who resort to the island from the Coast
of Coromandel; and more than one well-authenticated instance of its successful application has been
told to me by persons who had been eye-witnesses.
(These follow.)
As to the snake-stone itself, I
submitted one, the application of which I have been describing, to Mr. Faraday, and he has communicated
to me, as the result of his analysis, his belief that it is a piece of charred bone which has been filled
with blood, perhaps several times, and then charred again.
The probability is, that the animal charcoal,
when instantaneously applied, may be sufficiently porous and absorbent to extract the venom from the
recent wound, together with a portion of the blood, before it has had time to be carried into the system.
Tennent,
Ceylon, i. 197200.
1861. Have you been bitten? Yes, Sahib, he replied, calmly; the last
snake was a vicious one, and it has bitten me. But there is no danger, he added, extracting from the
recesses of his mysterious bag a small piece of white stone. This he wetted, and applied to the wound,
to which it seemed to adhere
he apparently suffered no
material hurt. I was thus effectually convinced
that snake-charming is a real art, and not merely clever conjuring, as I had previously imagined. These
so-called snake stones are well known throughout India.Lt.-Col. T. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, 9192.
1872.With
reference to the snake-stones, which, when applied to the bites, are said to absorb and suck out
the poison,
I have only to say that I believe they are perfectly powerless to produce any such effect
when we reflect on the quantity of poison, and the force and depth with and to which it is injected
and
the extreme rapidity with which it is hurried along in the vascular system to the nerve centres, I think it
is obvious that the application of one of these stones can be of little use in a real bite of a deadly snake,
and that a belief in their efficacy is a dangerous delusion.Fayrer, Thanatophidia of India, pp. 38, 40.
[1880.It is stated that in the pouch-like throat appendages of the older birds (adjutants), the fang of a
snake is sometimes to be found. This, if rubbed above the place where a poisonous snake has bitten a
man, is supposed to prevent the venom spreading to the vital parts of the body. Again, it is believed that
a so-called snake-stone is contained within the head of the adjutant. This, if applied to a snake-bite,
attaches itself to the punctures, and extracts all the venom.
Ball, Jungle Life, 82.]
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