CHAP. XXIII. Of the biting of a Snake.
I Have thought good in a true history to deliver the virulent malignity of the bite of a Snake,* 1.1 and the remedies thereof. When as King Charls the ninth was at Moulins, Mounsieur le Feure the Kings Physician, and I were called to cure the Cook of the Lady of Castelophers. Who gathering hops in a hedg to make a sallet, was bit on the hand by a snake that there lay hid, he putting his hand to his mouth; sucked the wound to ease the pain by sucking forth the venom: But his tongue forthwith swelled so big, that he could not speak his mind: besides, his whole arm, even to his shoulder, was in like sort much swelled, his pain was so vehement, that it hath made him swound twice in my presence, his face was wan and livid like to a dead body;* 1.2 and though I despai∣red of his recovery, yet not suffering him to be quite forsaken, I washed his mouth with Treacle dissolved in white wine, and gave him some thereof to drink, adding thereto some aqua vitae. I opened his swoln arm with many and deep scarifications, especially in the place where he was hurt I suffered the blood which was wholly serous and sanious, to slow more plentifully, I washed the wounds with treacle and mithridate dissolved in aqua vitae, and then I put him exceeding warm in bed, procuring sweat, and making him to lie awake, lest sleep should draw the poison inwards to the entrails. I by these means so far prevailed, that on the day after he was freed from all his ma∣lign symptoms. Therefore I judged, it only remained for a perfect cure, that the wound should be long kept open and washed with treacle; neither was I deceived, for within a few daies he was perfectly recovered.