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MEDTCINAL PROPERTIES OF THE GUACO. 
ON THE MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF THE GUACO. 
By P. L. Simmoxds, Esq. 
At a time when cholera has been committing great ravages 
throughout our West India Colonies, I beg to bring under the 
more general notice of the profession a remedy which has been 
effectually tried and found useful in several quarters. The " Bi- 
juco de Guaco," the Mikania Guaco, a creeping plant, native of 
South America, but now naturalized among the Antilles, has long 
been held in repute as an antidote to the bite of snakes ; its medi- 
cal properties, have not, however, hitherto been fully described. 
There are several species of Eupatorium closely allied to this 
guaco 3 and many varieties of the Milkania, so that among fifty or 
sixty of them it is difficult to identify the true medicinal guaco, or 
that which is here specifically recommended. 
The leaves of the best sort are stated to be heart-shaped, from 
four to six inches long, by two or three broad, the edges si ightly cur- 
ved and a little notched, of a fine dark green on one side and of a 
light purple changing color on the other. The leaves and stem are 
pubescent, and have a very bitter pungent taste. There are two 
principal kinds, distinguished by the flowers, those of the one 
being pale yellow, and the other white. The former is preferred. 
Some years ago Mr. Henry Vendryes delivered a lecture before 
the Jamaica Physical Society on the virtues of the plant. It was 
first introduced into use for its medical properties by Don Andres 
Diaz, of Havana ; and Dr. Chabert, of that city, described its cura~ 
tive properties in cases of cholera, in the Diario de la Habana. In 
a pamphlet published by Don Andres Diaz he says — 
" The preventive virtue of the guaco against all poisons is 
undeniable. My own estate having been visited by that awful 
scourge (the cholera), on the sixth day I found that twenty-eight 
of my people had died, and that twenty-two were in the hospital, 
all in the last stage of cholera. Seeing that, notwithstanding the 
treatment recommended by our medical faculty, our people were 
dying almost as soon as they were attacked by the malady, it 
struck me that by adopting the proposed remedy I might have a 
