ART. V.???Experimental Investigations to Determine whether the Garden Slug can Live in the Human Stomach
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Hardrade of Norway once visited the nobleman Halldor, whose daughter had been very ill. Fever, increasing abdominal girth and an unquenchable thirst were the major symptoms. The old women gossiped about her being pregnant, but the young lady denied this with great vehemence. Since she was steadily declining, the King was consulted. His diagnosis was that she had accidentally swallowed the spawn of a serpent when she drank water, and the reptile had grown within her. To rid her of this bosom serpent, she was to thirst for several days without being given any water; after that, she should be taken to a waterfall, and open her mouth so wide that the thirsty snake could hear the streaming water. When it slithered up her gullet and stretched its head out between the girl's jaws, her father was to strike it with his sword. After the King had left Halldor's house, this cure was performed exactly as he had prescribed; the bosom serpent was decapitated and the girl was restored to health. SNAKE-EXPELLING SAINTSThe belief in living snakes, frogs, lizards and other animals as parasites within the human gastrointestinal tract is of considerable antiquity. Already in ancient Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian manuscripts there is mention of a 'colic-snake' as a cause of painful stomach cramps. In De Morbis Vulgaribus, Hippocrates describes the case of a youth who had drunk a great quantity of strong wine. When he passed out on the ground, a snake slithered down his throat and caused his death from an apoplectic seizure.Very early on, however, there seems to have been some opposition to the established belief in stomach snakes. The learned Alexander of Tralles, living in Lykia during the sixth century AD, was once consulted by a woman who was certain she had a snake in her stomach1. He soon understood that she was a hysteric, and that the snake existed only in her imagination. He asked her to describe exactly what she thought the animal looked like, and then procured a similar specimen, which he put in her bowl of expectorations. The woman was completely cured, and she was deeply grateful to her clever physician. At about the same time, in Germany, a young lad with a snake in his stomach was taken to the holy Monegunde after many doctors and quacks had considered him to be incurable. With her hand, the holy woman could feel the snake moving in his intestines. She then fastened a small cross to a vine-leaf, which was tied to the boy's stomach. This magic formula had the desired effect: in a vulcanic opening of the bowel, the snake was expelled like a projectile1'2The bosom serpent also plays a part in one of the legends about the medical saints Cosmas and Damien, who were martyred in AD 283. A poor peasant was tortured day and night by a large snake that had crawled down his throat while he slept. No doctor could help him, but when he stepped into Cosmas and Damien's church the serpent slithered up his throat with great haste. Together with the rest of the congregation, the peasant fell on his knees to praise the Lord and the tw...
Hardrade of Norway once visited the nobleman Halldor, whose daughter had been very ill. Fever, increasing abdominal girth and an unquenchable thirst were the major symptoms. The old women gossiped about her being pregnant, but the young lady denied this with great vehemence. Since she was steadily declining, the King was consulted. His diagnosis was that she had accidentally swallowed the spawn of a serpent when she drank water, and the reptile had grown within her. To rid her of this bosom serpent, she was to thirst for several days without being given any water; after that, she should be taken to a waterfall, and open her mouth so wide that the thirsty snake could hear the streaming water. When it slithered up her gullet and stretched its head out between the girl's jaws, her father was to strike it with his sword. After the King had left Halldor's house, this cure was performed exactly as he had prescribed; the bosom serpent was decapitated and the girl was restored to health. SNAKE-EXPELLING SAINTSThe belief in living snakes, frogs, lizards and other animals as parasites within the human gastrointestinal tract is of considerable antiquity. Already in ancient Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian manuscripts there is mention of a 'colic-snake' as a cause of painful stomach cramps. In De Morbis Vulgaribus, Hippocrates describes the case of a youth who had drunk a great quantity of strong wine. When he passed out on the ground, a snake slithered down his throat and caused his death from an apoplectic seizure.Very early on, however, there seems to have been some opposition to the established belief in stomach snakes. The learned Alexander of Tralles, living in Lykia during the sixth century AD, was once consulted by a woman who was certain she had a snake in her stomach1. He soon understood that she was a hysteric, and that the snake existed only in her imagination. He asked her to describe exactly what she thought the animal looked like, and then procured a similar specimen, which he put in her bowl of expectorations. The woman was completely cured, and she was deeply grateful to her clever physician. At about the same time, in Germany, a young lad with a snake in his stomach was taken to the holy Monegunde after many doctors and quacks had considered him to be incurable. With her hand, the holy woman could feel the snake moving in his intestines. She then fastened a small cross to a vine-leaf, which was tied to the boy's stomach. This magic formula had the desired effect: in a vulcanic opening of the bowel, the snake was expelled like a projectile1'2The bosom serpent also plays a part in one of the legends about the medical saints Cosmas and Damien, who were martyred in AD 283. A poor peasant was tortured day and night by a large snake that had crawled down his throat while he slept. No doctor could help him, but when he stepped into Cosmas and Damien's church the serpent slithered up his throat with great haste. Together with the rest of the congregation, the peasant fell on his knees to praise the Lord and the tw...
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