SPURGE TRIBE. 551 



called in India Tirucalli, furnishes an acrid juice, which 

 is used in its fresh state for raising blisters. Other kinds 

 are used in various parts of the world as medicines, but 

 require to be administered with caution. The gum 

 resin, Euphorbiumj of chemists, is procured from three 

 species growing in Africa and the Canaries, by wounding 

 the stems, and collecting in leathern bags the sap which 

 exudes. It is an acrid poison, highly inflammable, and 

 so violent in its effects as to produce severe inflam- 

 mation of the nostrils if those who are employed in 

 powdering it do not guard themselves from its dust. 

 Pliny relates that the plant was discovered by King 

 Juba, and named by him after his physician, Euphorbus. 

 The Manchineel tree (Hippomane Mancinella) is said 

 to be so poisonous, that persons have died from merely 

 sleeping beneath its shade. Its juice is pure white, 

 and a single drop of it falling upon the skin burns like 

 fire, forming an ulcer often difficult to heal. The fruit, 

 which is beautiful and looks like an apple, contains a 

 similar fluid, but in a milder form; the burning it 

 causes in the lips of those who bite it guards the care- 

 less from the danger of eating it. Jatropha Manihot, 

 or Manioc, is a shrub about six feet high, indigenous 

 to the West Indies and South America, abounding in a 

 milky juice of so poisonous a nature, that it has been 

 known to occasion death in a few minutes. The 

 poisonous principle, however, may be dissipated by 

 heat, after which process the root may be converted 

 into the most nourishing food. It is grated into a pulp, 

 and subjected to a heavy pressure until all the juice is 

 drained off. The residue, called cassava, requires no 

 further preparation, being simply baked in the form 

 of thin cakes on a hot iron hearth. This bread is so 

 palatable to those who are accustomed to it, as to be 

 preferred to that made from wheaten flour ; and 

 Creole families, who have changed their residence to 

 Europe, frequently supply themselves with it at some 

 trouble and expense. The fresh juice is highly poison- 



