source of infrared light in a small beam like a laser. This works essentially on the same principle as laser treatment. It is less expensive. Like the laser, it can cause blistering, pain and scarring. Intralesional immunotherapy with purified candida, MMR, and tuberculin (PPD) protein appears safe and effective. Duct tape occlusion therapy involves placing a piece of duct tape over the wart. The mechanism of action of this technique still remains unknown. Despite several trials, evidence for the efficacy of duct tape therapy is inconclusive. Despite the mixed evidence for efficacy, the simplicity of the method and its limited side-effects leads some researchers to be reluctant to dismiss it. No intervention. Spontaneous resolution within a few years can be recommended. Alternative medicine Daily application of the latex of Chelidonium majus is a traditional treatment. The acrid yellow sap of Greater Celandine is used as a traditional wart remedy. According to English folk belief, touching toads causes warts; according to a German belief, touching a toad under a full moon cures warts. The most common Northern Hemisphere toads have glands that protrude from their skin that superficially resemble warts. Warts are caused by a virus, and toads do not harbor it. A variety of traditional folk remedies and rituals claim to be able to remove warts. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain has his characters discuss a variety of such remedies. Tom Sawyer proposes "spunk-water" (or "stump-water", the water collecting in the hollow of a tree stump) as a remedy for warts on the hand. You put your hand into the water at midnight and say: You then "walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody. Because if you speak the charm's busted." This is given as an example to Huckleberry Finn's planned remedy, which involves throwing a dead cat into a graveyard as a devil or devils comes to collect a recently buried wicked person. Another remedy involved splitting a bean, drawing blood from the wart and putting it on one of the halves, and burying that half at a crossroads at midnight. The theory of operation is that the blood on the buried bean will draw away the wart. Twain is recognized as an early collector and recorder of genuine American folklore. Similar practices are recorded elsewhere. In Louisiana, one remedy for