138 Voyage of the Novara. 



nor of the instantaneous activity of the injected poison, but it 

 became ere long apparent that he had been bitten, from the 

 blood making its appearance, coupled with a slight swelling of 

 the hand. Several physicians watched by the bedside of the 

 sufferer ; almost every half-hour the observed results were cir- 

 cumstantially reported. When, however, the symptoms rapidly 

 became worse, antidotes were applied, and every effort made to 

 save the patient. Nevertheless, the result of the experiment 

 was as anticipated — within twenty-four hours after the bite of 

 the rattlesnake Marianno was a corpse. 



Several members of the medical society of Vienna laid great 

 stress on our procuring a considerable quantity of the cele- 

 brated poison, " curarey* used in South America for tipping 

 arrows, with the view of instituting fresh experiments — similar 

 to those already made, so as to elucidate its chemical and 

 physiological properties. As the curare is not to be procured 

 in Rio, but comes thither from the northern province of Para, 

 where the natives procure it from the sap of the Strychnos 

 toxifera, Dr. de Lagos promised he would take care to procure 

 some, so as to transmit samples direct to the Vienna savans, 

 and at the same time gave us much information as to the latest 

 researches touching this substance, with whose remarkable pro- 

 perties Alexander v. Humboldt had made the scientific world 

 acquainted, more than half-a-century previously, in his classic 

 *' Travels through the Equatorial Countries." 



One special peculiarity of the curare consists in the fact 

 that, like most other organic poisons, it is only active when 



