Larry E. Millikan , chairman of the dermatology department at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans , likened some psychodermatology methods to the wart-treating strategies Tom Sawyer recommended to Huckleberry Finn : burying a dead cat at midnight or sticking one 's hand in a wet , rotten tree stump while chanting '' spunk-water , spunk-water , swaller these warts ! '' ''