Eating Snakes to Cure Leprosy

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Has Faith In His "Cure"

Only Patient who Tried Snake Diet for Leprosy Died, but Doctor Holds to His Theory.

In practicing medicine for the benefit of the natives I worked out one theory in regard to leprosy, which is a fairly common ailment in the Archipelago. I asked myself why, since a snake sheds its skin, a man who is afflicted with disease should not be able to do the same thing.

In Singapore there was a rich Chinese leper, known as Ong Si Chew, who asked me repeatedly why I did not bring him some new remedy for his disease. Since he had a large household of servants who took care of him, and his own carriages and richshas when he traveled, he was allowed to live untroubled by the authorities; but he was very unhappy, because he had tried all the remedies of the native doctors and was steadily growing worse.

At last I told him that I had something that might help. He asked me what it was, but I would not tell him. When he insisted, I answered, "Snakes."

"Ul-la!" he exclaimed, waving his arms in the air.

Then I explained my theory. The ability of a snake to shed his skin might be transferred to a human being if he ate snakes; and if so, the person would be able to shed his leprosy. Ong Si Chew did not care for the idea at all, but I told him it was worth trying and I argued that a snake is much cleaner than an eel.

At last he consented, and I furnished him with a number of small pythons with the instructions that they were to be killed and cleaned immediately before they were eaten. He was to eat them raw with his rice.

I left Singapore soon after that, and when I returned I found that Ong Si Chew had died. People thought it was a great joke on me because my patient had not survived the treatment, but I am far from being convinced that the cure will not work – or, at least, help to throw off leprosy. Ong Si Chew was in the last stages of the disease, and his case was not a fair test. – Charles Mayer, in Asia Magazine.

--The Indiana Progress, Indiana, Pennsylvania, April 27, 1921, page 4.