CEDRON OF THE MAGDALENA. 379 
the present time, I must content myself with an extract from an 
article in the * Atheneum’ journal for September, 1850, where it is ob- 
served :—“ An account is given in the continental papers of a great con- 
gress of medical men which it is proposed to hold in France, for the pur- 
pose of testing, by experiment, the virtue of a newly-discovered cure for 
madness, and for the bites of venomous serpents, by means of ‘Cedrone’ 
seed. It seeems that two individuals, M. Auguste Guillemin and M. 
Hippolyte Fournier, Professor of Mathematies of the department of Ar- 
veyron, have offered themselves to be operated on,—which means, we sup- 
pose, that they offer to let themselves be bitten, for the purpose of the 
inquiry." ‘ It has been thought advisable,” says the * Brussels Herald,’ 
“to postpone until next month the experiment to be tried on M. 
Auguste Guillemin, in order to afford sufficient time for all the celebrated 
men of France and other parts of Europe to meet together at this sort of 
medical congress, in which one of the most diffieult problems of occult 
medicine is to be solved. It is announced that all the different 
States of Europe will be represented at this meeting ;—Raussia, by a 
physician attached to the person of the Emperor; the German States, 
by seventeen doctors; and Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, will send 
delegates, although in those cold regions there are but few serpents, 
and cases of madness are rare. Some of the Cedrone seed will be 
sown in the Jardin des Plantes, where it is hoped it will succeed. 
Several of the faculty who have already made experiments on different 
animals, hope, by means of the Cedrone seed, to arrive at the,cure of 
mental disorders and epilepsy.” 
Dr. Pereira, in the new edition of his inestimable ‘ Materia Medica,’ 
now in course of publication, has not yet come to the natural family 
(Simarubacee) to which this plant belongs: I therefore applied to that 
gentleman, to ask if he was aware of any experiments having been 
dangereux, appelés toboba corail de la montagne, &c.: la i 
ereux, boba, , &e.: la promptitude avec laquelle 
le poison fut neutralisé fut si merveilleuse, qu'on paya la graine jusqu'à un doublon 
"Pendant mon long séjour dans l'Amérique ceritrale, j'ai eu moi-même occasion 
de recourir à la graine de cédron dans huit cas différents. Voici comme je Pem- 
ployais :— Cinq à six grains de cette graine étaient ràpés; cette poudre, délayée dans 
une cuillerée d'ean-de-vie, je la faisais avaler au malade, puis j'en soupoudrais un 
morceau de linge imbibé d'eau-de-vie, que j'appliquais sur la morsure; celà fait, je 
laissais le malade reposer ; et rarement j'ai eu besoin de répéter la dose pour le guérir 
“ J'ai encore employé ce médicament avec succès dans de cas de fièvres intermit- ——- 
tentes qui avaient ! dent résisté à l'emploi du sulfate de quinine.” 
: x 3c2 
