522 



the concentrated juice of the curare. The change 

 of colour, which the mixture undergoes, is owing 

 to the decomposition of a hydruret of carbon; the 

 hydrogen is burned, and the carbon is set free. 

 The curare is sold in little calebashes ; but it's 

 preparation being in the hands of a few families ? 

 and the quantity of poison attached to each dart 

 being extremely small, the curare of the first 

 quality, that of Esmeralda and Mandavaca, is 

 sold at a very high price. I have seen 5 or 6 

 franks paid for two ounces. This substance, 

 when dried, resembles opium ; but it attracts 

 humidity powerfully, when it is exposed to the 

 air. It's taste is of an agreeable bitter, and M. 

 Bonpland and myself have often swallowed small 

 portions of it. There is no danger in so doing, 

 if it be certain, that neither lips nor gums bleed. 

 In the recent experiments made by Mr. Mangili 

 on the venom of the viper, one of his assistants 

 swallowed all the venom that could be extracted 

 from four large vipers of Italy, without being 

 affected by it *. The Indians consider the cu- 

 rare, taken internally, as an excellent stomachic. 

 The same poison prepared by the Piraoas and 

 Salivas*^, though it has some celebrity, is not 



* Giornale de Fisica e di Chimica, vol. ix, p. 458. 



+ The Cabres, or Caveres, before their almost total de- 

 struction, were also much addicted to the fabrication of the 

 curare. 



