I*i2 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



ness, anxiety, fear of death, tremblings and con- 

 vulsions succeed, if the poison takes its full effect, in 

 the space of a few hours ; and the patient expires 

 within four and twenty hours after the bite of the 

 rattle-snake, and in a still shorter time after that 

 of the Jararaca-mirim, with the most dreadful con- 

 vulsions and sometimes with symptoms of hydro- 

 phobia, so that the curador who often Hves at a 

 distance comes too late, though no time has been 

 lost in sending for him. If the venom has not been 

 so powerful, and the curador therefore finds it pos- 

 sible to effect something, he generally begins by 

 sucking the wound, causes the patient to be con- 

 veyed into a dark chamber, carefully guarded against 

 every draught of air, and administers to him him- 

 self a great quantity of decoctions of certain herbs 

 and roots internally, and poultices of the same 

 medicines on the wound. One of the most effica- 

 cious and commonly used remedies, are the leaves 

 and roots of a rubiacea( CA^ococco anguifuga,M^ri*), 

 which is known in the country by the name of 

 Raiz preta or de Cobra, and, in its external qua- 

 lities, especially in the pungent, penetrating, and 

 disagreeable smell, much resembles the Senega 

 and Valerian. The patient must drink great 

 quantities of the decoction ; and the poultices of the 

 fresh-bruised leaves and roots are frequently re- 



* C. foliis ovatis acuminatis glabris, racemis paniculatis 

 axillaribus foliosis. (Vide Von Eschwege's Journal of Brazil, 

 Part I. p. 225.) 



