72 Dr. Hamilton on the Effects of the Musk Ockra. 
powerful effects of the seeds of the Hibiscus Abelmoschus, 
or Musk Ockra, in counteracting the fatal influence of the 
bite of venomous reptiles, related to me in one of his letters 
by Mr. Watts, our public-spirited consul at Carthagena,. as 
having fallen within the immediate limits of his own observa- 
tion; I shall therefore repeat the facts of Mr. Watts’ com- 
munication here. 
A peasant, resident on the heights of La Papa, near 
Carthagena, being engaged with his dogs in pursuit of a 
hare, a dog, the best of his number, had the misfortune to be 
wounded by one of the most venomous snakes of that district. 
The dog instantly dropped, foamed at the mouth, and the 
wounded part began to swell. ‘The peasant, regarding the 
case as desperate, at first resigned the dog to what he ima- 
gined to be his inevitable fate; but returning home, and 
recollecting that the animal had been a favourite, and the 
best of his pack, he determined to revisit the spot, and ascer- 
tain the degree of hope to be entertained. On reaching the 
spot, he found the animal stretched out, unable to move, and 
evidently in great agony: taking him up in his arms, he hur- 
ried home with him, and immediately rubbed the swoln and 
wounded part well with the bruised seeds of the musk plant, 
or Almisdenia, as the Hibiscus Abelmoschus is called there; 
forcing a considerable quantity at the same time down the 
animal's throat, with such success, that symptoms of amend- 
ment rapidly appeared, and the dog, at the date of Mr. 
Watts’s letter, was perfectly recovered; although nothing is 
more certain than that his death would have been inevitable, 
had he been left to his fate. Yet here the application was 
made under circumstances by no means favourable, since 
much time had necessarily been lost, and the symptoms of 
constitutional affection from the action of the poison had 
actually begun to exhibit themselves. 
The Musk Ockra is a common plant in most of our West- 
India islands, and its seed could be easily obtained from 
thence to almost any amount. It certainly merits further in- 
vestigation, and will, I trust, attract the notice of some of 
the scientific members of the Society. A saturated tincture 
of the bruised seeds would, in all probability, be the most 
convenient form for internal exhibition. 
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