9£i Natural Hlsicrtf. 



under the protection of the governor Count dos Arcos, to 

 Para, where he has remained above a year. In a letter lately 

 received from him, he gives the following testimonies re- 

 specting the ayapava {eupatorium, ayapana, Vcntenat and 

 Willdenew), which confirm the healmg powers ascribed to 

 tl>at plant*, and render it more worthy the attention of 

 physicians, as we have already obtained from the neigh- 

 bourhood of the same district, ipecacuanha, quassia, and 

 cantharides ; the last of which are become indispensable in 

 medicine. 



Para in Brazil, June lith, 1S04. 



In regard to the celcb-ratecl plant ayapana, which is sard 

 to be an antidote to all poisons, I have made two experi- 

 ments on myself. A soldier brought me a brown catter- 

 piliar covered with hair, an inch in length and, intermixed 

 with small prickles. I took it from the leaf into my hand^ 

 upon which the soldier cried out, " For God's sake take 

 care, the caterpillar is poisonous." His exclamation how- 

 ever was too late : I received three pricks in the middle 

 tinger of the right hand, the finger appeared red, swelled, 

 and became exceedingly painful. In a quarter of an hour 

 the redness and swelling extended over the whole arm, and 

 as far as the elbow, so that in half an hour I could scarcely 

 iMove it J I recollected the avapana, sent for it, expressed 

 the juice, and applied it to my arm with so^mc of the bruised 

 plant : in two or three minutes the pain decreased ; in half 

 an hour I was able to bend my arm, and the next day I 

 recovered the perfect vise of if. The pricks in my finger, 

 however, retained a dull pain for two days> but at the end 

 of that time it wcnL off. 



The second trial was more disagrceai)lc. A small scolo- 

 pcndra stung or bit nic, while asleep in the night-time, in 

 the forehead above the right eve ; I immcdialclv waked and 

 i^earchcd for the animal, which I found next day and 

 killed. As I could not in the night-lime procure the plant, 

 t\\Q poison before next morning had made a considerable 

 progress : atter appK ing the ayapana, the pain and inflam- 

 mation went off; suppuration, however, 1 was not able to 

 prevent: a corneous excrescence of above an inch in knglh 

 arose on my forehe:ul, and as I could not put pn my hat J 

 v.as obliged to n niaiu four days in the house : the scar will 

 still be apparent when 1 return. 



My as.-istant was bitten in the woods in the right foot j 

 at first he knew nothing of it, and felt no bad consequences 



* See Philos J, hicai Magazine, vol. xiii. 

 4 till 



