Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 347 of 406 - First - Home
Galvanic Experiments Succeeded Upon Birds, Some
Minutes After I Had Killed Them With A Poisoned Arrow.
These
observations are not uninteresting, when we recollect that a solution
of the upas-poison poured upon the sciatic nerve, or insinuated into
the texture of the nerve, produces also a sensible effect on the
irritability of the organs by immediate contact with the medullary
substance.
The danger of the curare, as of most of the other
strychneae (for we continue to believe that the mavacure belongs to a
neighbouring family), results only from the action of the poison on
the vascular system. At Maypures, a zambo descended from an Indian and
a negro, prepared for M. Bonpland some of those poisoned arrows, that
are shot from blowing-tubes to kill small monkeys or birds. He was a
man of remarkable muscular strength. Having had the imprudence to rub
the curare between his fingers after being slightly wounded, he fell
on the ground seized with a vertigo, that lasted nearly half an hour.
Happily the poison was of that diluted kind which is used for very
small animals, that is, for those which it is believed can be recalled
to life by putting muriate of soda into the wound. During our passage
in returning from Esmeralda to Atures, I myself narrowly escaped an
imminent danger. The curare, having imbibed the humidity of the air,
had become fluid, and was spilt from an imperfectly closed jar upon
our linen. The person who washed the linen had neglected to examine
the inside of a stocking, which was filled with curare; and it was
only on touching this glutinous matter with my hand, that I was warned
not to draw on the poisoned stocking. The danger was so much the
greater, as my feet at that time were bleeding from the wounds made by
chegoes (Pulex penetrans), which had not been well extirpated. This
circumstance may warn travellers of the caution requisite in the
conveyance of poisons.
An interesting chemical and physiological investigation remains to be
accomplished in Europe on the poisons of the New World, when, by more
frequent communications, the curare de bejuco, the curare de raiz, and
the various poisons of the Amazon, Guallaga, and Brazil, can be
procured, without being confounded together, from the places where
they are prepared. Since the discovery of prussic acid,* (* First
obtained by Scheele in the year 1782. Gay-Lussac (to whom we are
indebted for the complete analysis of this acid) observes that it can
never become very dangerous to society, because its peculiar smell
(that of bitter almonds) betrays its presence, and the facility with
which it is decomposed makes it difficult to preserve.) and many other
new substances eminently deleterious, the introduction of poisons
prepared by savage nations is less feared in Europe; we cannot however
appeal too strongly to the vigilance of those who keep such noxious
substances in the midst of populous cities, the centres of
civilization, misery, and depravity. Our botanical knowledge of the
plants employed in making poison can be but very slowly acquired.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 347 of 406
Words from 180134 to 180646
of 211397