525 



tana), and the milk of some other apocyneoe. 

 The fresh juice of the ambihuasca exerts a dele- 

 terious action, if it touch the blood* ; the juice 

 of the mavacure is a mortal poison only when it 

 is concentrated by fire ; and ebullition deprives 

 the juice of the root of jatropha manihot {yucca 

 amarga) of all| it's baneful qualities. In rub- 

 bing a long time between my fingers the liana 

 which yields the cruel poison of La Peca, when 

 the weather was excessively hot, my hands were 

 benumbed ; and a person who was employed 

 with me felt the same effects from this rapid 

 absorption by the uninjured integuments. 



I shall not here enter into any detail on the 

 physiological properties of those poisons of the 

 New World, which kill with the same prompti- 

 tude as the strychnese of Asia (the vomit nut, 

 the upas tieutae, and the bean of Saint Ignatius), 

 but without producing vomiting when they are 

 received into the stomach, and without an- 

 nouncing the approach of death by the violent 

 excitement of the spinal marrow. During our 

 abode in America, we sent some curare of the 

 Oroonoko, and joints of bamboo filled with the 

 poison of the Ticunas and of Moyobamba, to 

 Mr. Fourcroy and Mr. Vauquelin ; and, after 

 our return, we also furnished Mr. Magendie and 



* Manuscript notes of Mr. Andivieles, an inhabitant of 

 Lamas. 



