Remarks on the Worari and Sirvatan. 53 



to M. de la Condamine, upon the Amazon ; but afterwards, if 

 I remember well, it was said to have been disproved by some 

 experiments made in Germany. 



I am, nevertheless, inclined to think, that some of the tribes 

 do possess a secret antidote to the worari ; for I was assured by 

 the Portuguese, that the Indians of the Rio Negro are in the 

 habit of shooting birds and monkeys with the worari, and after- 

 wards resuscitating and transporting them to Para for sale. 



This would be an interesting subject for a traveller to inves- 

 tigate. Could such an antidote be found, as to render the 

 worari manageable, I feel a persuasion that it would put us in 

 possession of a most important medicinal agent in convulsive 

 disorders, as in tetanus and hydrophobia, and in diseases per- 

 haps of an acute inflammatory nature. 



Does it kill by the privation of oxygen, the pabulum of the 

 blood, and supporter of vitality ? — If this were the modus 

 operandi, by which it subverts the living power, its effects 

 might possibly be restrained by inhaling the oxygenous gas, or 

 by cautiously throwing oxygen into the veins. 



Be this as it may, it is probable that the same principle 

 belongs to very different plants. If so, an important discovery 

 remains to be made — that of ascertaining the proximate prin- 

 ciple, which, acting on the nervous and vascular systems, 

 proves so subversive of animal life. 



John Hancock. 



On a Method of Cidtivating Plants in Walls, for Ornaments ; 

 with a Catalogue of those which succeed under this treat- 

 ment. 



to the editor. 



Dear Sir, 



For these ten years past, and more, I have been intending to 

 communicate to you, for the sake of such of your readers as it 

 might interest, a species of improvement (if I may use this 

 grandiloquous term for want of a better) in one department of 

 ornamental horticulture, which I had put in practice in dif- 

 ferent places long before this ; yet I have delayed it till I need 



