864 ANTIDOTE AGAINST SNAKE-BITES. 



masters of that vast country; if, without having been impe- 

 ded by Christian settlements, they could follow freely the 

 development of their barbarous institutions; the worship 

 of the botuto would no doubt become of some political im- 

 portance. That mysterious society of the initiated, those 

 guardians of the sacred trumpet, would be transformed into 

 a ruling caste of priests, and the oracle of Tomo would gra- 

 dually form a link between the bordering nations. 



In the evening of the 4th of May we were informed, that an 

 Indian, who had assisted in dragging our bark over the por- 

 tage of Piniichin, had been stung by a viper. He was a tall 

 strong man, and was brought to the mission in a very 

 alarming state. He had dropped down senseless; and 

 nausea, vertigo, and congestions in the head, had succeeded 

 the fainting. The liana called vejuco de guaco* which M. 

 Mutis has rendered so celebrated, and which is the most 

 certain remedy for the bite of venomous serpents, is yet un- 

 known in these countries. A number of Indians hastened 

 to the hut of the sick man, and he was cured by an infu- 

 sion of raiz de mato. We cannot indicate with certainty 

 what plant furnishes this antidote; but I am inclined to 

 think, that the raiz de mato is an apocynea, perhaps the 

 Cerbera thevetia, called by the inhabitants of Cumana lingua 

 de mato or contra-culebra, and which they also use against 

 the bite of serpents. A genus nearly allied to the cer- 

 beraf is employed in India for the same purpose. It is 

 common enough to find in the same family of plants vege- 

 table poisons, and antidotes against the venom of reptiles. 

 AJ any tonics and narcotics are antidotes more or less active ; 

 and we find these in families very different;}; from each other, 

 in the aristolochiae, the apocyneae, the gentianae, the polygalae, 



* This is a mikania, which was confounded for some time in Europe with 

 the ayapana. De Candolle thinks that the guaco may be the Eupatorium 

 satureiajfolium of Lamarck ; but this Eupatorium differs by its lineary 

 leaves, while the Mikania guaco has triangular, oval, and very large leaves. 



t Ophioxylon serpentinum. 



t 1 shall mention as examples of these nine families ; Aristolochia 

 tnguicida, Cerbera thevetia, Ophoiorhiza mungos, Polygala senega, 

 Nicotiana tabacum, (one of the remedies most used in Spanish America). 

 Mikanua guaco, Hibiscus abelmoschus (the seeds of which are ven 

 ac ive), Lanpujum rumphii, and Kunthia monfana 'Cafia de la Vibora). 



