The idea has been advanced that the commonest of the species of serpent, _Elaphis Æsculapii_, described above, at Epidaurus, where the myth of the Grecian god of medicine first took definite shape, affords an adequate explanation of the association of the reptile with medicine. This may have had a little to do with it. I cannot admit, however, that it did more than, perhaps, emphasize somewhat the association. If such were its origin, the association could not be viewed otherwise than as incidental, and hence the serpent might be without any special meaning. After referring to some strange curative virtue attributed to serpents, Pliny says: “Hence it is that the snake is consecrated to Æsculapius.”[184] Here is a specimen of them given by the rather credulous old Roman: “It is a well-known fact that for all injuries inflicted by serpents, and those even of an otherwise incurable nature, it is an excellent remedy to apply the entrails of the serpent itself to the wound.”[185] The principle is obviously the same as that illustrated in the old custom of applying a hair of the dog to cure the wound caused by the bite of the animal. In many parts of the world, the serpent has been accorded great virtue as a medicine, and in China and elsewhere such is the case even to this day. In fact, apart from the preposterous and numerous uses to which it is put by homœopathic doctors, is not the venom of the most deadly species declared by leading members of the profession to be a capital cure for various serious ills? However, Dr. D. G. Brinton quotes the rather striking observation of Agassiz, that “the Maues Indians, who live between the Upper Tapajos and Madeira Rivers in Brazil, whenever they assign a form to any ‘remedio,’ give it that of a serpent.”[186] But, in spite of the wide belief in the virtue of the serpent as a medicine, I cannot accept the opinion of Pliny, that it affords a sufficient explanation of the matter in question. Its actual healing properties were assuredly too equivocal to merit such distinction. With all its virtues, _soma_ itself received little or no more. The fabled power of the serpent to discover herbs of curative virtues has been suggested as an explanation of the association of it with medicine. This is based on a traditional episode in the history of Æsculapius, which reminds one of the German story of the Snake Leaves, told by Grimm.[187] As regards the Æsculapian fable, it seems that on one occasion, while thinking what treatment to resort to in the case of a patient of his, Glaucus, a serpent appeared and twined itself around his staff; he killed it, whereupon another came bearing in its mouth an herb with which it restored the dead one to life. The god used the same herb with similar effect on the human subject.[188] The extremely miraculous feature of this explanation is an obstacle in the way of its acceptance.