NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS 445 
(1843, p. xvii.): "At valde fallerentur, qui putarent, 
Brasiliae plantas medicas omnes per autochthones 
colonis esse oblatas ; potius multa me movent, ut 
dicam, totidem, quae nunc adhibentur, a nigris et 
albis incohs esse detectas et usu cognatas, quot ab 
ilHs." Of external appHcations, I have seen only 
the following. For a wound or bruise or swelling, 
the milky juice of some tree is spread thick on the 
skin, where it hardens into a sort of plaster, and 
is allowed to remain on until it falls of itself 
Almost any milky tree may serve, if the juice be not 
acrid; but the Heveas (India-rubbers), Sapotads, 
and some Clusiads are preferred. Such a plaster 
has sometimes an excellent effect in protecting the 
injured part from the external air. 
At Tarapoto, in the Eastern Peruvian Andes, 
where the people are all Christians, and some of 
them almost pure white, where there are churches 
and priests and schools, such medicine as they have 
is little more than necromantic practices of their 
curanderos. In all sicknesses the first curative 
operation is to sobar el espanto (rub out the fright), 
which is done thus : Chew a piece of the gum-resin 
called "sonitonio," place it in the hollow of the 
hand, and with it rub the legs of the sick person, 
from the knees downwards, and end by whistling 
between all the toes. There are other ridiculous 
and useless operations, but in some cases the 
rubbing is really beneficial. Take this mode of 
''rubbing out colic" as an example. Put a little 
fowl's grease in the hand, and rub it over the body 
of the patient, round and round, over the course 
of the colon, making every now and then a forcible 
twist and pressure on the navel, para soltar el 
