204 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



Esmeralda on the Upper Orinoco, but unfortunately we 

 did not find it in blossom. Judging by its physiognomy it 

 appears to be related to Strychnos (Eel. hist. T. ii. p. 547* 

 556). Since the notice in the work referred to of the 

 curare or ourari (previously mentioned by Raleigh, both as a 

 plant and as a poison), the brothers Robert and Richard 

 Schomburgk have done much towards making us accurately 

 acquainted with, the nature and preparation of this substance, 

 of which I wa& the first to bring a considerable quantity 

 to Europe. Richard Schomburgk found the plant in 

 blossom in Guiana on the banks of the Pomeroon and the 

 Sururu in the territory of the Caribs, who are not, however, 

 acquainted with the manner of preparing the poison. His 

 instructive work (Reisen in Britisch-Guiana, Th. i. S. 441- 

 461), contains the chemical analysis of the juice of the 

 Strychnos toxifera> which, notwithstanding its name and 

 its organic structure) does not contain, according to Bous- 

 singault, any trace of strychnine. Virchou and Hunter's 

 interesting physiological experiments make it probable that 

 the curare or ourari poison does not kill by mere external 

 absorption, but only when absorbed by living animal sub- 

 stance of which the continuity has been severed (i. e. which 

 has been wounded slightly) ; . that it does not belong to the 

 class of tetanic poisons ; and that its particular effect is to 

 take away the power of voluntary muscular movement, 

 whilst the involuntary functions of the heart and intestines 

 still continue. Compare, also, the older chemical analysis of 

 Boussingault, in the Annales de Chhme et de Physique, 

 T. xxxix. 1828, p. 24-37. 



