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fame remedy, fhew’d no figns of being indifpofed, 
&c” 
I was ftruck with amazement on reading thefe 
fails : but my furprize was foon follow’d by a defire 
of repeating thofe experiments myfelf, and even of 
trying them on different forts of animals. 
Monfieur de la Condamine, to whom I imparted 
my intention, offered, with the bed grace in the world, 
to fatisfy my curiofity, and for that purpofe made me 
a prefent of a certain quantity of this poifon : and the 
refultofthe experiments, which I made with this fame 
poifon, will be the fubjeit of this memoir. 
I will begin the detail of thofe experiments by 
that of two accidents, which had like to have difabled 
me from profecuting the work I had undertaken ; 
having very narrowly efcaped death. 
The firfl accident happen’d thus : M. de la Con- 
damine had forewarned me, that, when the Indians 
defigned to ufe their poifon (which, in colour, con- 
fidence, and even in fmell, has a great deal of re- 
femblance with Spanifh liquorice) they diffolved it 
in water, and then evaporated it on a flow fire to the 
confidence of a foft extract. I made this prelimi- 
nary preparation in a fmall clofet, in which a young 
lad was actually at work ; and I did not think 
of making him quit it, becaufe I did not imagine, 
that the poifon, of which I intended to make trial, 
could produce any bad effects, without being intro- 
duced into the blood, by the opening of a wound- 
Nor did I then recoiled; what M. de la Condamine 
had told me j which is, that, while they are pre- 
paring this poifon in the country, they oblige fome 
criminal old woman to take care of the boiling of 
this; 
