46 
ON THE GUM OF THE RHUS METOPIUM, ETC. 
excellent tonic and stomachic, but as their active principle is 
more completely soluble in spirit than in water, the tincture is 
a still better preparation, and combined with iron very ef- 
fectual in restoring the menstrual discharge when it has been 
suppressed or interrupted. 
This plant is so abundant in Jamaica, that, were a market 
found for it in England, a supply to almost an unlimited extent 
might be obtained ; entitling it to the attention of the. medical 
practitioners as a cheap and valuable substitute for some of 
the more costly articles of the Materia Medica of our shops. 
There are many other species of aristolochia common within 
the tropics, and equally entitled to attention for their medici- 
nal properties : of which the Aristolochia trilobata is to be met 
with on the south side of Jamaica as abundantly as the A. 
odoratissima is on the north, and the infusion of its roots is a 
favorite stomachic with the negroes, who are in the constant 
habit of employing it, under the name of bastard contrayerva. 
In the woods which clothe the hills adjoining the town of 
Carthagena, the capital of the province of that name in South 
America, is found another species, the Aristolochia anguicida, 
known to the inhabitants by the name of snake poison, or 
contra capitan, the external and internal use of which, if em- 
ployed in sufficient time, is said to counteract the bite of the 
most deadly serpents. The Indian jugglers mix the juice of 
its roots by mastication with the saliva, of which they intro- 
duce a few drops into the mouths of the snakes which they 
exhibit, in order to stupify and enable them to handle them 
with impunity. 
Facts such as these are well worth medical investigation. 
Ibid. 
