STUDY I. 



19 



while they might be ufefully employed as miracu- 

 lous remedies, to counterad the ills of human life. 

 We have preferved, for example, in the Royal Ca- 

 binet at Paris, arrows more formidable than thofe 

 of Hercules, though dipped in the blood of the 

 fnake of Lerna. Their points are impregnated 

 with the juice of a plant fo venemous, that, though 

 expofed to the air for many years, they can, with 

 the flighteft pundure, deflroy the moft robuft of 

 animals, in a few minutes. The blood of the crea- 

 ture, be the wound ever fo trifling, inftantly con- 

 geals. But if the patient, at the fame inftant, is 

 made to fwallow a fmall quantity of fugar, the cir- 

 culation is immediately reftored. Both the poifon 

 and the antidote have been difcovered by the fa- 

 vages which inhabit the banks of the Amazon ; 

 and it is of importance to obferve, that they never 

 employ in war, but only in the chace, this murder- 

 ous method of deftroying life. 



Wherefore do not we, who pretend to fo much 

 humanity and illumination, endeavour to afcer- 

 tain, by experiment, whether this poifon might 

 not be rendered medicinal in cafes of a fudden 

 diflblution of the blood ; and fugar, in cafes of 

 fudden coagulation ? Alas ! how is it to be ex- 

 peâ;ed we lliould apply to the prefervation of 

 Mankind, the malignant and deftrudive qualities 

 of a foreign vegetable, we who are continually 



c 2 abufmg. 



