The Sap. 265 



the fruit of the ensuing year. Again, the planting of large tubers 

 of the potatoe is another proof of the importance of plenty of the 

 accumulated sap to the vigorous growth of all plants. 



The cause of the motion of the sap is a subject which has long 

 excited great curiosity, and has given rise to numberless con- 

 jectures. But the difficulty will be readily solved by consider- 

 ing that plants are living beings, and that in them the circulation 

 of the sap is owing, in a great measure, to the same causes that 

 produce the circulation of blood in man. It is hardly worth 

 while in this place to explain or refute the doctrines of endos- 

 mose and exosmose, which is undoubtedly the most ingenious 

 of all the theories advanced by the chemical philosophers. 



Whitlaw observes, that it is well known the American Indi- 

 ans can cure the bite of the most venomous reptiles, except in 

 cases where a blood-vessel has received the poison, the conse- 

 quence of which will cause death in a very few minutes. But 

 in acute inflammation, they always succeed if the remedy be 

 applied in time, even when the inflammation is very considera- 

 ble. They are not less successful in the most desperate instances 

 of the Ticunas or American poison, and Woorara. They always 

 compound their poison in the same manner, and follow with the 

 most scrupulous exactness, the proportions taught them by their 

 forefathers. Their arrows," wheji poisoned, and when they pene- 

 trate the body, will prove fatal alike to men and animals. Not- 

 withstanding their deadly effects, an antidote has been discovered 

 by the Indians, made from the Eupatorium Scandens of Lin- 

 naeus. The warriors were in the habit of taking the expressed 

 juice of the plant to battle, in order to administer from four to six 

 ounces of it to such as were wounded, as it will instantly destroy 

 the effects of the poison ; but if not taken immediately after the 

 wound is inflicted, the consequences will prove fatal in a few 

 minutes. The most respectable tribes do not use it 



