523 



so much esteemed as that of Esmeralda. The 

 process of this preparation appears to be every 

 where nearly the same ; but there is no proof, 

 that the different poisons sold by the same name 

 at the Oroonoko and the Amazon are identical, 

 and drawn from the same plants. Mr. Orfila 

 therefore, in his excellent work on general Toxi- 

 cology, has very judiciously separated the woo- 

 rara of Dutch Guyana, the curare of the Oroo- 

 noko, the ticuna of the Amazon, and all those 

 substances, which have been too vaguely united 

 under the name of American poisons*. Perhaps 

 some future day one and the same alkaline prin- 

 ciple, similar to the morphin of opium, and the 

 vauquelin of the strychnos, will be found in ve- 

 nomous plants, which belong to different ge- 

 nera. 



At the Oroonoko, the curare de raix (of the 

 root) is distinguished from the curare de bejuco 

 (of lianas, or of the bark of branches). We 

 saw only the latter prepared ; the former is 

 weaker, and much less esteemed. At the river 

 of the Amazons we learned to distinguish the 

 poisons of the Ticuna, Yagua, Peva, and Xibaro 

 Indians, which, proceeding from the same plant, 

 perhaps differ only by a more or less careful pre- 

 paration. The toxique des Ticunas, to which M. 



* Emmer, de Effectu Venenorum vegct. American., Tub. 

 1817. 



