Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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We Cannot Indicate With
Certainty What Plant Furnishes This Antidote; But I Am Inclined To
Think, That The Raiz De
Mato is an apocynea, perhaps the Cerbera
thevetia, called by the inhabitants of Cumana lingua de mato or
contra-culebra,
And which they also use against the bite of serpents.
A genus nearly allied to the cerbera* (* Ophioxylon serpentinum.) is
employed in India for the same purpose. It is common enough to find in
the same family of plants vegetable poisons, and antidotes against the
venom of reptiles. Many tonics and narcotics are antidotes more or
less active; and we find these in families very different* from each
other, in the aristolochiae, the apocyneae, the gentianae, the
polygalae, the solaneae, the compositae, the malvaceae, the
drymyrhizeae, and, which is still more surprising, even in the
palm-trees. (* I shall mention as examples of these nine families;
Aristolochia anguicida, Cerbera thevetia, Ophoiorhiza mungos, Polygala
senega, Nicotiana tabacum, (One of the remedies most used in Spanish
America). Mikanua guaco, Hibiscus abelmoschus (the seeds of which are
very active), Lanpujum rumphii, and Kunthia montana (Cana de la
Vibora).)
In the hut of the Indian who had been so dangerously bitten by the
viper, we found balls two or three inches in diameter, of an earthy
and impure salt called chivi, which is prepared with great care by the
natives. At Maypures a conferva is burnt, which is left by the Orinoco
on the neighbouring rocks, when, after high swellings, it again enters
its bed.
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