280 On the Eiipatoiium Huaco. 



maiion concerning a remedy, professing to subdue that formidable 

 malady, even after the full development of its symptoms. I am 

 satisfied from personal experience, as well as from an immediate 

 knowledge of six or eight cases among my acquaintance, and from 

 information received relative to more than fifty other patients, treated 

 under the direction of a single physician, that the bite of a mad dog 

 is as much under the control of medicine, if administered in due 

 season, as the bite of any venomous reptile ; or, indeed, as any 

 acute disease whatever. The remedy to which I refer, does not, 

 however, rest its claim to notice exclusively, or even chiefly, on its 

 efficacy in curing hydrophobia. It is a v^^ell known specific, in the 

 countries in which it is Indigenous, for the bite of venomous reptiles, 

 particularly of the rattlesnake ; and has recently, we are assured, 

 been applied with singular success, in the treatment of yellow fever. 



The remedy in question, is the plant well known in several parts 

 of Mexico, and in some portions of Central and South America, un- 

 der the name of Huaco or Guaco. Having received from a friend, 

 a quantity of this plant in a dried state, embracing roots, stems and 

 leaves,! have enclosed aspecirnen for your inspection. That itpossess- 

 es powerful medicinal qualities, may readily be believed from its strong 

 aromatic properties, and from its intense bitter, almost acrid taste. 



Without offering to vouch for the authenticity of all that has been 

 said concerning it, I will will give the substance of a communication, 

 published in a Mexican newspaper, (El Censor,) at Vera Cruz, on 

 the 31st of August, 1832. As it states facts which would easily be 

 refuted if untrue, (since they must be familiar to many persons in 

 Mexico,) and as it asserts cures, in which other members of the 

 medical faculty besides the author of the communication, must feel 

 some interest, we may perhaps, be justified in believifig that the 

 author, at least, fully confided in the truth of his own statements. It 

 willalso be seen, that he refers to several names well known among 

 the distinguished men of Mexico. 



The paper, of which a translation is here subjoined, is entitled, 

 " Olservations on the Huaco, by J. L. Chabert, M. D., Consulting 

 Physician of the Military Medical Staff, at Vera Cruz, ^c. 4^c." 

 " The Huaco or Guaco, a valuable plant which grows abundantly in 

 the forests of the warm districts of several states in the Mexican 

 Union, is a certain antidote against the bite of venomous serpents. 

 The learned Mutis affirms, that repeated experiments which he has 

 made have proved the truth of the above assertion, and that eele- 



