On This Occasion We Made A Grand Discovery, Of Which We Afterwards
Profited Greatly.
A portion of the skin of the bullock was dried, and a
certain quantity was added to our soup at night; which we soon found to
be not only a great improvement, but to be in itself much preferable to
the tasteless meat of our knocked-up bullocks.
The stomach was also made
use of on this occasion, as our useful dog, Spring, was well provided
with emu meat. We had our last pot of tea on the 22nd, and we were now
fairly put on dry beef and water.
By a mere accident, we discovered a remarkable medicinal property of the
glutinous secretion of the seed-vessels of a drooping Grevillea. John
Murphy, having no pockets in his trowsers, put the seeds which he found
during the stage into his bosom, close to the skin, where he had already
deposited a great number of Sterculia, and was much inconvenienced by the
starry prickles which surround the seeds. Afterwards, finding the
drooping Grevillea in fruit, he gathered some capsules and placed them as
before stated. Upon arriving at the camp, he felt great pain; and, on
examining the place, he saw, to his greatest horror, that the whole of
the skin of the epigastric region was coloured black, and raised into a
great number of painful blisters. Upon his showing it to me, I thought
that it was caused by the Sterculia prickles having irritated the skin,
and rendered it more sensitive to the sharp properties of the exudation
of the seed-vessels of Grevillea.
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