Note 1 — CHAP. XXI.

Here, our camp being mostly overgrown with long coarse grass, one of the slaves was unfortunately bitten in the foot by a small serpent, called in Surinam the 1Oroocookoo snake, from its colour, which resembles an owl. In less than a minute the man’s leg began to swell, when he was seized with excruciating pains, and soon fell into convulsions. One of his companions, having killed the snake, made the patient drink its gall, mixed with half a glass of spirits, which I gave him. He seemed now (perhaps from imagination) to bear his misfortune better; but the fits soon returned with increasing violence, and he was instantly sent to his master’s plantation, where he expired. That the gall of adders, externally applied, is efficacious, I have often heard. In the Grand Magazine for April 1758, may be seen a letter, signed J. H. and dated 24th March, which treats systematically of the application of gall. But these investigations I must leave to the learned of the medical profession; and only observe, in general, that the smaller the snake, at least in Guiana, the more fatal the poison; as is justly and beautifully observed by Thomson: