1 mmmtl
2 5 ?$;"
3 J42
4 etch out their hand or foot, when the reptile is
5 advancing towards them; after tile serpent has bitten them
6 it retires, and (lie patient then feels relieved. The greater part
7 of such patients are, once a year, viz., in July or August,
8 visited, wherever they may be, by their reptile friends. I
9 met with only a small number who required to he bitten twice
10 a-yenr; and with only one indeed who wanted to be bitten
11 monthly.' What I have related is certainly a singular font,
12 't'd highly interesting to naturalists. But how is it that
13 this disease is peculiar to the Punjab? The natives assert,
14 that the bite (when it is with young) of the Anrphisba rut (erro¬
15 neously called Dtimuhn, two-mouthed serpent), which is gene¬
16 rally believed not to be venomous, is the cause of the disease,
17 and that the virus at certain periods ferments in the human
18 frame. This species of serpent being indigenous in America,
19 it is worth inquiry, whether the disease is not also to he
20 found in that part of trie world? A patient thus afflicted
21 told me, on one occasion, that he was ad",used as a curative
22 process, to seize the serpent at live moment it approached him,
23 and having previously wrapped a cloth round its bead, to
24 bite it off. By neglecting to envelope tlie serpent's head, he
25 was told that lie would lose two of his front teeth.
26 Some hakims at Lahore recommended us a remedy, trio fruit
27 of Cmtaevn Tapia, mixed with oil, which is used externally as
28 mi ointment.
29 After this digression about serpents, the relation of which
30 may have been of some interest, it will probably not appear
31 superfluous, if I explain the meaning of the expression used
32 by the faquerr who performed the experiments with the vipers,
33 in calling the maharajah, the “son of a laundress.”
34 One of the wives of' Runjeet Sing gave birth to a girl, at
35 Vctalah, and in those countries the birth of a female child
36 i> not considered as a happy or fortunate event. By chance
37 a laundress in the neighbourhood brought forth at the same
38 t'mo, a strong boy. The ranee having been apprised
39 oJ this, and wishing to have a male child at any price,