Recipes, Hints and Cures
Snake Bite Remedy
HARRISONBURG, VA., July 10 - Alum, salt and onions are prescribed as an anecdote for the deadly poison of a rattlesnake by I. Ford Cave, veteran Page county berry picker and snake hunter residing in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Cave never goes out into the mountains without his supply of alum, salt and onions which he says was recommended to him by a Kentuckian who twice was bitten by rattlesnakes without harm.
Cave says that the alum is to be chewed and placed on the bite while wet and then the juice of the onion squeezed on and the salt added. Cave says he believes this mixture counteracts the poison if it is applied immediately.
From a clipping from an old newspaper, probably 1920s.
It is presented for entertainment purposes only.
Note: Below is the definition for Alum from The American Heritage Dictionary
al·um ( ²l"…m) n. 1. Any of various double sulfates of a trivalent metal such as aluminum, chromium, or iron and a univalent metal such as potassium or sodium, especially aluminum potassium sulfate, AlK(SO 4 ) 2 ·12H 2 O, widely used in industry as clarifiers, hardeners, and purifiers and medicinally as topical astringents and styptics
