266 
!Fever Mixtures and Purgatives. 
causitic juice of the fruit of a Passiflora is rubbed into them.* I have 
seen no aborigines, be it an aged man or woman, a boy, or a girl, who 
did not carry the scars of such barbarous bleedings. The third general 
remedy is a strict fast during which the sick person touches nothing but 
a boiled drink made of cassava flour. However unfortunate they may 
be in the cure of internal diseases, they prove themselves all the more 
successful in the simple and satisfactory treatment of wounds. Smaller 
wounds are washed out clean, then held for a time over the fire, and now 
bandaged. With bigg'er injuries or mutilations, the wounded person is 
laid upon a framework over a lire, the wounds carefully cleaned, and 
healing proceeds rapidly. I have already mentioned on several occasions 
that even the most horrible agony cannot force a murmur from their lips. 
612. The plant remedies used by Indians, as well as by coloured 
people and Negroes are : 
For fever : — 
An infusion of the bark of Enjngiwm foetidum Linn., Byrsonima 
crassijoliu, a decoction of the bark and blossoms of Üio^pyros Paralea 
Steud., Scoparia dnleis Linn., LisyantJms pui'purascens Aubl., Myrniccia 
scandens Willd., Strijclnios pseudo-qaina ';St. Hil., (Juassia amura, 
Uvuria fchrifiKja lluiiih., r>oii[)., and Kectandra Rodici Schomb. The 
last remedy is uiKloiilitcdly the most efficacious. The effects of a decoc- 
tion of the l)ark or fruit of this tree — which at the same time su])i)lie8 
the best timlier that is ^exported to England — have been known for some 
time. Dr. Eodie Avho owns a woodrcutting establishment in Demerara, 
and resided there a good deal, noticed that both the Indians and 
the Negroes Avlieu attacked with fever would put the bark, fruits, even 
the squashed wood, in a quantity of Avater, and then drink it especially 
of a morning when the fever would soon leave them.f He accordingly 
attemjited to separate the alkaloid, which he succeeded in doing in one 
attempt, but never again. Bancroft had descril)ed the tree in 1779 in 
his ''Natural Histoiw of Guiana" under the name of greenheart, by 
which it is generally known in the Colony. Botanically it remained 
unknown until shortly before our departure when my brother first 
obtained the blossoms, and the tree turned out to 1>e a Wrctaudra to 
winch he ga^^e the specific name Rodici after the European discoverer of 
its febrifuge ;"^Toperties. Almost all tlie coastal rivers, particularly the 
Demerara, possess the tree in large nnmbers, and shonld Peru limit the 
export of the real cinchona, greenheart bark will am]dy replace it. Fop 
intermittent fever, tHe Negroes particularly employ the roaste:' root of 
the Maranfn arnridinacen Linn. 
613. Purgatives and Emetics : — 
A! small dose of 'Jonidium Ifonhou is very effective as a pui'gative : 
a dram is sufficient to act as an emetic. The Brazilians use the root as 
a cure for dysentery. A dose of 6 to 8 grains of the resinous sap of 
* The " monstrous swelling of the abdomen " is probably not an indication of the 
prevalence of " liver aifections " but due to enlargement of the spleen from Chronic Malaria, 
ft is interesting to find the steam-bath, the cold-bath and the practice of bleeding so prevalent. 
(F.G.E.) 
t At the present time it would seem to be most commordy used as a cure for diarrhoea, 
etc. (Ed.) 
