326 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



than by his words ; but to make assurance doubly sure, I took a fresh 

 sup of the guaco tea, and waited tremblingly the result. A slight 

 inflammatory swelling soon appeared about the orifice of the wound, 

 but at the expiration of a few hours it had completely subsided, and I 

 felt that I was all right again. 



On many occasions afterwards I repeated the experiment of dand- 

 ling serpents I had myself taken in the woods, and some of them of 

 the most poisonous species. On these occasions I adopted no farther 

 precaution than to swallow a dose of the guaco sap, and even chewing 

 the leaves of the plant itself was sufficient. This precaution is also 

 taken by those such as hunters and wood-choppers whose calling 

 carries them into the thick jungles of the southern forest, where dan- 

 gerous reptiles abound. 



