72 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
infested with stinging caterpillars. Children who 
play under the Tamarind trees at Guayaquil often 
get badly stung by hairy caterpillars that drop on 
them. I had always made light of caterpillars' 
stings until one evening at Tarapoto, in gathering 
specimens of an Inga tree, I got badly stung on 
the right wrist, at the base of the thumb ; and 
when the pain and irritation at the end of half 
an hour went on increasing, I applied solution 
of ammonia pretty freely, and it proved so strong 
as to produce excoriation. The next morning the 
wound (for such it had become) was inflamed and 
very painful, but I tied a rag over it and started 
for the forest, accompanied by three men. We 
were out twelve hours, and had cold rain from the 
sierras all day ; and when I reached home again 
my right hand was swollen to twice its normal size, 
and the swelling extended far up the arm. That 
was the beginning of a time of the most intense 
suffering I ever endured. After three days of 
fever and sleepless nights, ulcers broke out all 
over the back of the hand and the wrist — they were 
thirty-five in all, and I shall carry the scars to my 
grave. For five weeks I was condemned to lie 
most of the time on a long settle, with my arm 
(in a sling) resting on the back, that being the 
easiest position I could find. From the first I 
applied poultices of rice and linseed, but for all 
that the ulceration ran its course. At one time 
the case looked so bad that mortification seemed 
imminent, and I speculated on the possibility of 
instructing my rude neighbours how to cut off 
my hand, as the only means of saving my life. I 
attributed my sufferings almost entirely to the 
