M. MATERIA MEDIC A, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 5 79 



the bodies of animals that are poisoned by snakes may be 

 eaten by man and animals with impunity. Of this the ex- 

 perimenter had frequent proof. He found, however, that the 

 blood of an animal that died from snake-poison is itself poi- 

 sonous, and that if injected into another animal it destroys 

 life. Although venomous snakes are not affected, or but 

 slightly, by snake-poison, they readily succumb to strychnine 

 or carbolic acid, the latter substance appearing to destroy 

 them very rapidly, and to be an object of special aversion. 



The usual remedies in the way of antidotes Dr. Fayrer con- 

 siders of very little account, as being either powerless or 

 quite inert. A ligature, excision, or cautery, if applied in 

 time, appears to be the only rational remedy that can be of 

 any avail in a really poisonous case. Stimulants are not un- 

 frequently judiciously recommended, but as antidotes, in the 

 ordinary sense of the term, they have no special value. 20^4, 

 Apr ill, 374. 



CUNDURANGO A REPUTED SPECIFIC FOR CANCER. 



The State Department at Washington received, in the 

 spring of 1871, through the minister from Ecuador to the 

 United States, specimens of a plant known as cundurango, 

 found in the province of Loya, in Ecuador, to which marvel- 

 ous qualities in curing cancer and other similar diseases are 

 ascribed. The physicians of Quito have been experimenting 

 upon this substance, and report most wonderful cures, and a 

 limited quantity of the plant has been sent to the United 

 States in order to secure proper experiments upon it on the 

 part of the American faculty. No intimation is given of the 

 botanical character of the plant, the fruit of which, however, 

 is said to be highly poisonous. 



Its virtues were first discovered, according to a communica- 

 tion accompanying the specimens, entirely by accident. An 

 Indian had been suffering fearfully for a long time from in- 

 ternal cancer, and his wife undertook to relieve him by short- 

 ening his life by poison. For this purpose she selected the 

 cundurango ; but, not being able to obtain it at the time of 

 its fruit-bearing, she made a decoction of the bark. To her 

 astonishment, the first application appeared to benefit the pa- 

 tient rather than otherwise, and by a continuance of this rem- 

 edy he was completely cured in a short time. 



