upon different animals, and even upon those of the same species, appear to be rather uncertain, and not always in proportion to the quantity of the poison given. With some animals it produces its effects almost instantaneously; with others not till after several hours, when laborious respiration, followed by torpor, tremblings, coma, and convulsions, usually precede the fatal spasms, or tetanus, with which this drug commonly extinguishes life.

From four cases related of its mortal effects upon human subjects, we find the symptoms corresponded nearly with those which we have here mentioned of brutes; and these, as well as the dissections of dogs, killed by this poison, not shewing any injury done to the stomach, or intestines, prove that the nux vomica acts immediately upon the nervous system, and destroys life by the severity of its narcotic influence.

The quantity of the seed necessary to produce this effect upon a strong dog, as appears by experiments, need not be more than a scruple: a rabbit was killed by five and a cat by four grains: and of the four persons to whom we have alluded, and who unfortunately perished by this deleterious drug, one was a girl ten years of age, to whom fifteen grains were exhibited at twice for the cure of an ague. Loss, however, tells us, that he took one or two grains of it in substance without discovering any bad effect; and that a friend of his swallowed a whole seed without injury.

In Britain, where physicians seem to observe the rule saltem non noscere, more strictly than in many other countries, the nux vomica has been rarely if ever employed as a medicine. On the continent, however, and especially in Germany, they have certainly been guided more by the axiom "what is incapable of doing much harm, is equally unable to do much good." The truth of this remark was lately very fully exemplified by the practice of Baron Stoerck; and is farther illustrated by the medicinal character given of nux vomica, which, from the time of Gesner till that of a modern date, has been recommended by a succession of authors, as an antidote to the plague, as a febrifuge, as a vermifuge, and as a remedy in mania, hypochondriasis, hysteria, rheumatism, gout, and canine madness.

In Sweden it has of late years been successfully used in dysentery; but Bergius, who tried its effects in this disease, says, that it suppressed the flux for twelve hours, which afterwards returned again. A woman, who took a scruple of this drug night and morn

ing, two successive days, is said to have been seized with convulsions and vertigo, notwithstanding which, the dysenteric symptoms returned, and the disorder was cured by other medicines; but a pain in the stomach, the effect of the nux vomica, continued afterwards for a long time. Bergius, therefore, thinks it should only be administered in the character of a tonic and anodyne in small doses, (from five to ten grains) and not till after proper laxatives have been employed.

Loureiro recommends it as a valuable internal medicine in fluor albus; for which purpose he roasts it till it becomes perfectly black and friable, which renders its medicinal use safe, without impairing its efficacy.

[Gesner. Wepfer. Junghanns. Woodville.

SECTION VII.

Manchineel Tree.

Hippomane manicella.-LINN.

THERE are three species of the Hippomane, of which the one here referred to has leaves ovate, serrate, with two glands at the base. The milky juice of this tree is highly poisonous, and was at one time in frequent use among the Indians as a poison for the tips of their arrows. The poisonous property pervades nearly equally the fruit and the wood. Hence the incautious traveller, tempted by the appearance of the first, has often fallen a victim to the violence of its morbid stimulus: for the poison seems to depend on a peculiar acrimony alone; and hence also the fellers of the timber, which on account of the closeness and beauty of its grain is in much esteem among our cabinet-makers, are compelled to dry the trunk by making fires around it, before they attempt to fell it; while the sawyers find it requisite to blind their eyes while sawing, to avoid ophthalmic inflammations, which the pungent aroma that flies about them is otherwise sure to produce. If the juice of this tree touches the skin, it generally blisters it; and if it falls on linen, it corrodes it like vitriolic acid, the spotted parts turning black, and terminating in holes. This is a West Indian tree.

The manchineel tree affords furniture for slabs, interspersed with beautiful green and yellow veins like marble; but the dust of the

wood is of so acrid and poisonous a nature, that the sawyers and carpenters are obliged to work with gauze masks, to protect them from its injurious effects.

Historians have, however, exaggerated the accounts they have given of the poisonous nature of this tree; for it has been said, that the heads of the persons who sleep under its shade swell, and they become blind; that if the leaves touch but the naked skin, they raise pustules, which cause deadly pains, unless helped with water and salt, or fasting spittle. This, however, is not true; nor is any ill consequence to be feared from the leaves touching the naked body, unless they are bruised, and the white milky juice they contain is suffered to pervade the pores; when it does, it raises blisters like those of the confluent kind of the small pox, causing acute pains; but simple drops of rain-water falling from those leaves upon the skin will not have any ill effect, which Mr. Hughes affirms he has experienced upon repeated trials.

"This tree," observes the same writer, "is of a very quick growth, and is seldom or never found growing to any perfection but in a loose and sandy soil, near the sea or other water. The trunk, when full grown, is generally from two feet and a half to three feet in diameter, branching, most commonly, from three to fifteen feet high from the ground. The grain is smooth, and the wood durable. It bears a fruit of the same make as the round sort of crab-apple, and in its branches is of a beautiful colour and fragrant smell. The pulp of these manchineel apples does not exceed one-seventh of an inch in depth, the inside being a hard stony kernel, in which are included the seeds. Formerly no one dared to cut down these trees, without first having made a large fire round them, in order to burn the bark and dry up the juices that proceed from them in cutting: but now naked negroes venture to cut them down, only using the precaution of rubbing their whole bodies with lime-juice, which prevents the sap from corroding or ulcerating their skins. Bruising and mashing the tender leaves and boughs, and then throwing them into fish-ponds, has often been practised by villains to destroy the fish, which soon after grow stupid, float with their bellies upward on the top of the water, and frequently die. Some sorts of fish will eat these apples; these are often found dead in the water, and if taken while alive and eaten, often prove poisonous; even the large white crab that burrows in the sand, is not, if near these trees,

to be used for food. It is extremely remarkable that wherever a manchineel-tree grows there is found either a white wood, or a fig tree near it, the juice of either of which is an infallible antidote against the poison; salt water is no less efficacious; and as these trees grow by the sea-side, this remedy is also near at hand."

[Pantologia. Martins. Hispaniola. Editor.

SECTION VIII.

Lamas and Ticunas.

Mons. de la Condamine, on his return from the voyage which he made in the interior parts of South America, from the coast of the South Sea to the coasts of Brazil and Guiana, by going down the river of the Amazons, brought to Paris a small quantity of a very dangerous poison, much in use among the Indians of Lamas, Ticunas, Pevas, and also among the Yameos, who all extract it by fire from divers plants, especially from certain plants which the French call lianes.

Those savages are very dexterous at making long tubes, which are the most common weapons used by the Indians for hunting. To these they fit little arrows made of the palm tree, on which they put a small roll of cotton, that exactly fills the bore of the tube. They shoot them with their breath, and seldom or never miss the mark. This simple instrument advantageously supplies the defect of firearms among all those nations. They dip the points of these little arrows, as well as those of their bows, in this poison; which is so active that in less than a minute, especially when fresh, it kills certain animals, from which the arrow has drawn blood.

* Lamas is a Spanish village, or little town, in Upper Peru, situated in about 7° of south latitude, to the west of the river of Guallaga. The native Indians of this district prepare a famous poison for poisoning arrows, different from that of the Yameos, Pevas, and Ticunas, Indian nations on the borders of the river of the Amazons, towards the mouth of the Napo, in 3o or 4o of south latitude. The poison of Ticunas is the most famous of all for its activity. They say, that that of Lamas sooner loses its force, but that it is more proper for certain animals than that of Ticunas. And it is the common opinion, that that of Lamas, being mixed with that of Ticunas, becomes more violent and active by the mixture.-Orig.

Mons. de la Condamine says, in the abridged account of his voyage, that "when he arrived at Cayenne, he had the curiosity to try whether this poison, which he had kept above a year, still retained its activity and at the same time whether sugar was really as efficacious a counter poison as he had been assured. Both the experiments were performed, he says, in presence of the commandant of the colony, of several officers of the garrison, and of the king's physician. A hen, slightly wounded with one of these little arrows, the point of which had been dipped in the poison thirteen months at least before the trial, blown through a trunk, lived half a quarter of an hour: another, pricked in the wing with one of these arrows, newly dipped in this poison diluted with water, and immediately drawn out of the wound, seemed to dose a minute after; convulsions soon came on, and, though we had made her swallow some sugar, she expired. A third, pricked with the same arrow, dipped again into the poison, having been instantly assisted by the same. remedy, shewed no signs of being indisposed, &c."

Mons. Herrissant was struck with amazement on reading these facts: but his surprise was soon followed by a desire of repeating those experiments himself, and even of trying them on different sorts of animals. Mons. de la Condamine, to whom he imparted his intention, offered to satisfy his curiosity, and for that purpose made him a present of a certain quantity of this poison; and the result of the experiments, which he made with this same poison, forms the subject of this memoir.

He begins the detail of those experiments by that of two accidents, which had like to have disabled him from prosecuting the work he had undertaken, having very narrowly escaped death. The first accident happened thus: M. de la Condamine had forewarned him, that when the Indians designed to use their poison, which in colour, consistence, and even in smell, has a great deal of resemblance to Spanish liquorice, they dissolved it in water, and then evaporated it on a slow fire to the consistence of a soft extract. M. Herrissant made this preliminary preparation in a small closet, in which a young lad was actually at work; and be did not think of making him quit it, because he did not imagine, that the poison, of which he intended to make trial, could produce any bad effects, without being introduced into the blood by the opening of a wound. Nor did he then recollect, what M. de la Condamine had told him :