136 Voyage of the Novara. 



practical efficacy and peculiarities of the assacu in cases of 

 the above malady, according to which it appears, that 

 the symptoms of the patient improve in the most mar- 

 vellous manner from the very first day on which the remedy 

 is used ; the illness seems to he suddenly arrested, or, at all 

 events to make but very slight progress. The milky sap is 

 exhibited internally, in the form of pills, and a decoction of the 

 bark is also administered by way of a beverage for the patient, 

 —externally an infusion of the bark is used for bathing 

 purposes. Some of those affected, to whom this remedy was 

 applied, felt a sensation as of formication, immediately on 

 taking it, while others experienced a feeling as though they 

 had been submitted to a series of shocks of electricity, only 

 weaker and more equable. 



It is a well-established fact that in many parts of South 

 America, a popular belief prevails that the bite of the deadly 

 Cobra de cascavel, or rattlesnake, heals Elephantiasis, or 

 pustular leprosy, in which disease, as is well known, the legs 

 and feet of those attacked are covered with a scurf resembling 

 the cuticle of the elephant. However, instances of the prac- 

 tical application of so terrible a remedy, which seems to be 

 almost more dreadful than the disease it professes to cure, are 

 in all probability of rare occurrence, and are therefore doubly 

 important when, as in the case detailed to us, they occurred 

 under the very eyes of a man of science, and are related by the 

 observer himself. 



A native, named Marianno Jose Machado, from Rio Pardo, 



