531 



wound is rubbed with this salt, which is also 

 taken internally. I had myself no direct and 

 sufficiently convincing proof of the action of 

 this specific. The experiments of Messrs. I)e- 

 lille and Magendie rather make against it's 

 utility. On the banks of the Amazon, the pre- 

 ference among the antidotes is given to sugar ; 

 and the muriat of soda being a substance al- 

 most unknown to the Indians of the forests, if 

 is probable, that the honey of bees, and that 

 farinaceous sugar, which oozes from plantains 

 dried in the sun, were anciently employed 

 throughout Guyana. In vain have ammonia and 

 eau de luce been tried against the curare ; it 

 is now known how uncertain these pretended 

 specifics are, even when applied to wounds 

 caused by the bite of serpents. Sir Everard 

 Home* has shewn, that a cure is often attri- 

 buted to a remedy, when it is owing only to the 

 slightness of the wound, and to a very circum- 

 scribed action of the toxique. Animals may 

 with impunity be wounded with poisoned ar- 

 rows, if the wound be well laid open, and the 

 point imbued with poison be withdrawn imme- 

 diately after the wound is made. If salt or 

 sugar be employed in these cases, people are 

 tempted to take it for an excellent specific. 

 Indians, who had been wounded in battle by 



* Philos. Trans., 1810, Part I, p. 75. 

 2 M 2 



