tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8187108429320043507.post9105699742357683154..comments2023-06-18T11:15:19.480-04:00Comments on The Tumbleweed Farm: Edward Kajdański's take on the sumxuAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04519885025963711017noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8187108429320043507.post-31499103088502545432011-06-01T15:03:16.375-04:002011-06-01T15:03:16.375-04:00"Turn away pet vipers by producing infra-red ...<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/104/36/14372" rel="nofollow">"Turn away pet vipers by producing infra-red signals with their tails"</a> - now, that's something that Kircher would positively love! <br /><br /><em>Ben cao gang mu</em> in its brief entry on the <em>Shi-she shu</em> does not have the "repel" bit, though. All it says (in a modern translation by Luo Xiwen <em>et al</em>, Foreign Language Press, beijing, 2003) is this:<br /><br /><em>Li Shizhen: The country Jibinguo contributed a kind of snake-eating mouse. It has a pointed mouth and a red tail. It can eat a snake. It is said when bitten by a snake, one should let a mouse sniff at the wound and then it will urinate on the wound. This will heal the wound. Comment: This is of course not heard of anymore today. It is recorded here for reference.</em><br /><br />So Kajdański must have gotten that idea from some other source (hopefully, as venerable as <em>BCGM</em>).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04519885025963711017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8187108429320043507.post-53531949348542855052011-05-30T07:30:45.831-04:002011-05-30T07:30:45.831-04:00Anti-snake powers: It turns out that there are spe...Anti-snake powers: It turns out that there are species of squirrel that can turn away pit vipers by producing infra-red signals with their tails! The kind of story you'd credit to two hundred years of mis-transcriptions, and indeed I came across this in a novel, but the source is cited ("Ground Squirrels Use an Infrared Signal to Deter Rattlesnake Predation," Proceedings of the NAS 104).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com