Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1883 — “Viper Man and Woman.” [ARTICLE]

“Viper Man and Woman.”

At Gaudalajara, says a Mexican paper, there exists an individual having a scaly skin exactly like that of a viper, even to the green color. He has, besides, the viper habit of changing or shedding his skin every year. The skin come off in a single piece, and not, as might be supposed, in parts. On the man’s hand there is not a single hair. A sister of this man, who died some time ago, manifested the same phenomenon, and toward the close of her life began slowly to grow’ blind, owning to the viper’s skin encroaching on the eyes to such an extent that she could only see through a narrow aperture at each eye. The same thing is now happening to the brother. He can scarcely see any object, and the head presents the repulsive aspect of a viper. In Cuaulta these unhappy beings have been known as the “viper man and woman,” and the phenomenon is attributed tc the fact that their mother ate an excess of viper’s meat to cure a disease of the blood. In Cuba it is a common practice for people to eat viper’s flesh as a remedy for blood diseases. A novel and pretty ceremony, not without its moral value, has been borrowed from France Iwa London priest. Father Nugee, of a charitable religious mission, has crowned with roses, in the Crystal Palace, a poor sewing girl for conspicuous virtue. The damsel thus distinguished is selected by a council of matrons who are in a position to know her life. The London Telegraph, in speaking of the occasion, says that Father Nugee did not exaggerate when he said that the miserable existence of I the sewing" machine girl was a neces- | sary surrender of health as the price of | virtuous industry.