Many species of wild plants are supposed to have the property of counteracting the effects of the poison of serpents. In any backwoods community you may find some one who claims to know some sovereign herb that will do this. In the seventh edition of my Book of Camping and Woodcraft (1915) I named many of these plants and discussed them. This book is out of print, but may be consulted in public libraries by anyone curious in such matters. Scientists of today have no faith whatever in herbal "cures," There are plants that will assist Nature in the way of heart and nerve stimulants, or possibly by inducing copious sweating; but there is none that acts as a real antidote against snake poisoning. As for the backwoodsmen who use herbs as "snake-masters," it will be observed that they have firm faith in the efficacy of "lots o' whiskey" as an adjuvant, if not as a panacea sine qua non.

One time I asked an old moonshiner, "Quill" (that was his first name) "if a snake bit you, when you had no whiskey, what would you do?"

"And no liquor to be had?"

"Yes".

"Sir, if a snake tuk sich advantage of me, I'd throw him in the fire!"