1018 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805, 



*' We must not omit the discoveries 

 made, in this undertaking,* to the 

 advantage of the public, and of oa- 

 tural history. Bezarcs met with a 

 description of very lofty trees, the 

 ATOod of which is unknown, but 

 Taluable, not only because, with all 

 its solidity, it yields with equal sup- 

 pleness to the plane and the chisel ; 

 but likewise on account of its scmi- 

 TBolet colour, by which it appears 

 to be, in preference to any other 

 ■wood, adapted to the purpose of 

 dyeing, lie found another tree, 

 vhich produces, in the shoots of its 

 branche';, a resinous substance in 

 grains. Tof a grct'nish hue, which, as 

 he proved it to be an cflFectual sub- 

 stitute for scaling, wax, is apparently 

 calculated for many uses. A kind 

 of ozier or willow, which grows in 

 this territory, is deemed by the 

 Indians a specific in complaints of 



the bowels, and is named by them 

 calenture^ because, in employing its 

 decoction in cases of the most vio« 

 lent rheumatic affections, the patient 

 is subjected for three or four hours 

 to a violent fever, which, termina- 

 ting in a copious perspiration, leaves 

 him free from every ailment. The 

 few trials of this remedy which hare 

 been made, have been extremely 

 successful against siphylis; and if 

 the practical inquiries that have 

 been recently instituted should cor- 

 respond wi'h them, cures may be 

 effected by the means of one of the 

 most surprising simples for which 

 medicine is indebted to the Ameri- 

 can continent. The production of 

 a worm, which the Indians name. 

 siistiUo^ and by which a paper, very 

 similar to that made in China, is fa, 

 bricated, has been hitcrto unknown 

 to all the naturalists. + Lastly, 



Bezares 



* About the year 1707. 



t Even the tireat Reaumur included, there is not one of them who makes men- 

 tion, either of th's caterpillar, or of its pruduction. Farther Calancha Hlone, in his 

 AuiTustinian History of Peru (lib. i. p. fit?,) gives an account of it, and observes, 

 that it is peculiar to the valley of Pampatcro, now Pampantico, in the vicinitv of 

 the Panatuas, uow Pauatasuns, at a small distance from Iluanuco, and ten days' 

 Journey from Lima, whore the Jesuits built the to<vn of Ascension. Ttiis is pro- 

 perly the site discoverad by Boz.ares. Calancha adds, that he had in his possession 

 a leaf of this paper, inscridrd by father Al(insoGoiiicz,ai)d addressed to father Lucas 

 Salazar, who was assured, by his correspondent, that it ^vi^s cut from a piece a yard 

 and a quarter in length, and that there were other pieces which measured a yard and 

 three-quarters, &c. Next follow the details relative tn the mode the worm pursues 

 in weaving the paper. The loss of the towns above ref'^cd to, and the scarcity of 

 Calancha's work, buried in oblivion the dlscovcrv and remembrance of this pheno- 

 menon, unfortunately not the only one which has been subjected to that lot. The 

 degree of interest occasioned by so estraordinavy a species, obliges us to relate what 

 has been observed respecting the stistiHo, which, it is to be lamented, is soupht after 

 by the Indians as a most delicious food. This caterpillar is bred in the pacae, a tree 

 well known in Peru, and named by the Peruvian Flora, MS. mbvosa ingo. In pro- 

 portion to the vigour and majestic growth of this tree, is the number of the insects 

 it nourishes, a'ud which are of the kind and size of the bumh>/.r. or silk-worm. When 

 they are completely satiated, they unite at the body of the tree, seeking the part 

 which is best adapted to the extension they have to take. They there form, with 

 the greatest symmetry and regularity, a web which is lar<rer or"smaller, according 

 to the numbi;r of the operants; and more or less pliant, according to the quality of 

 tlie leaf by which they have been nourished, ti.e whole of them remaining beneath. 

 y ■ ' This 



