ANTIDOTES AGAINST SNAKE POISON. 295 



but at the same moment, struck by a ball from the prince's 

 rifle, lay writhing on the ground. The Indian, though other- 

 wise a strong-nerved man, was so paralysed by fear, that it was 

 some time before he could recover his self-possession — a proof, 

 among others, that it is superfluous to attribute a fascinating 

 power to the venomous snakes, as the effects of terror are quite 

 sufficient to explain why smaller animals, unable to flee the 

 impending danger, become their unresisting victims, and even 

 seem, as it were, wantonly to rush upon destruction. Thus 

 Poppig saw on the banks of the Huallaga an unfortunate frog, 

 which, after being for some time unable to move, at length 

 made a desperate leap towards a large snake that was all the 

 time fixing its eye upon it, and thus paid for the confusion of 

 its senses with the loss of its life. 



A poor Indian girl that accompanied Schomburgk on his 

 travels through the forests of Gruiana was less fortunate than 

 the Prince of Neu Wied's companion. She was bitten by a 

 trigonocephalus, and it was dreadful to see how soon the powers 

 of life began to ebb under the fatal effects of the poison. The 

 wound was immediately sucked, and spirits of ammonia, the 

 usual remedy, profusely applied both externally and inwardly, 

 but all in vain. In less than three minutes, a convulsive 

 trembling shook the whole body, the face assumed a cadaverous 

 aspect, dreadful pains raged in the heart, in the back, less in 

 the wound itself ; the dissolved blood flowed from the ears and 

 nose, or was spasmodically ejected by the stomach ; the pulse 

 rose to 120-130 in the minute; the paralysis which first be- 

 numbed the bitten foot spread farther and farther, and in less 

 than eight minutes the unfortunate girl was no longer to be 

 recognised. The same day the foot sw^led to shapeless dimen- 

 sions, and she lay senseless until, after an agony of sixty-three 

 hours, death relieved her from her sufferings. 



A great many antidotes have been recommended against 

 serpentine poison, but their very number proves their inef- 

 ficacy. One of the most famous is the juice of a Peruvian 

 climbing plant, the vejuco de huaco {Mikania Huaco, Kunth), 

 the remarkable properties of which were first discovered by a 

 negro, wlio observed that when the huaco, a kind of hawk which 

 chiefly feeds on snakes, has been bitten by one of them, it im- 

 mediately flies to the vejuco and eats some of its leaves. 



