[ 79 ] _ ■ 
by the good fuccefs of the foregoing example. 
Therefore I difpofed of every thing as at thefirft time, 
and I ftaid in the clofet. In about an hour’s time I 
perceived my legs to bend under me, and my arms 
became fo weak, that I could fcarcely uie them. I 
had but juft time enough to come quickly out of the 
clofet, and get down into the yard; where I order’d 
wine and fugar to be brought me, as I had before 
done for the young lad. 
Such was the iirft danger, which I incurred in pre~ 
paring the American poil'on : the fecond was not in- 
ferior to it. 
After having diftolved the poifon of Ticunas in 
water, and reduced it to the confidence of an extract 
in the manner above defcribed, I put it into a phial, 
which I flopped very exadtly, and locked up in a 
desk, till I fhould have occaiion to ufe it in the ex- 
periments, which I intended to make. I began thefe 
experiments on the 6 of June 1748 ; which was fo 
hot a day, that I dripped to my fhirt, and had my 
bread and arms expofed to the air. In my left hand 
I held the phial, the cork of which dew up to the 
cieling with vaft rapidity. At the fame indant there 
idiied out of this phial a yellowifh vapour, of a very 
penetrating fmell, which was foon followed by the 
extract itfelf, that fpread itfelf all over the rim of the. 
neck of the bottle. I was fo dupided at this unex- 
pected accident, that I imagin’d (as it was very pof- 
fible) that the bottle was broken in pieces : and as foon 
as I faw my hands, arms, and bread, colour’d in 
feveral places by the poifon, which had befprinkled 
them in the explodon, I look’d on myfelf as a dead 
man : which mud certainly have been the cafe, if 
