from those who were desirous, through curiosity, to see them handle these dangerous animals.

"Being born in the kingdom of Santa-Fé, belonging to SouthAmerica, I had often heard the inhabitants boasting of the great ability of these negroes, whom my countrymen call empirics. But as in the capital, where I was educated, which lies in a cold district, there are no venomous serpents, I had no opportunity of seeing any till the year 1788, when, being at Margerita, I heard of a slave who had a great reputation as being invulnerable to serpents, and who belonged to a gentleman of that place. As I was resolved to examine him myself, I begged his master to send for him, with a sufficient provision of serpents, which he readily consented to do.

"On the 30th May, the same year, the negro came to the house where I resided with one of the most venomous serpents of the country, which he had put into a calabash; a kind of vessel employed by these people for the same purposes as bottles are employed in Europe. Having informed him that I was desirous of seeing a specimen of his talents, he replied that he was ready to gratify my curiosity, and, taking the serpent from the calabash, handled it with so much confidence and composure that I imagined he had previously deprived it of its teeth that contained the poison. I therefore caused him to open its mouth; but I saw that it still had its teeth, and was convinced that the negro possessed some secret for soothing it, for it appeared as tame and harmless as the most innocent animal could have been. After a long conversation with the negro, of whom I asked several questions, to which he gave the most pertinent answers, I informed him how much I should be gratified if I could be enabled to handle serpents with the same security; and finding he was not averse to procure me that satisfaction, I offered him a recompense, with which he seemed satisfied. Next morning he returned with the leaves of the plant in question, which he moistened, and, having bruised them in my presence, made me drink two large spoonfuls of the juice.

"He then made three incisions between my fingers in each hand, in which he inoculated me with the same juice: he performed a similar operation on each foot, and on each side of my breast. When these operations were finished he informed me that I might lay hold of the serpent. I made several observations to him in regard to the disagreeable consequences to be apprehended in case I should be bit by the animal; but finding that he seemed confident in his skill, I resolved to take it into my

hands without any fear, which I did several times, the animal never making the least attempt to do me any injury. One of the individuals, however, who were in the house, being desirous to run the same risk, was bit by the serpent the second time he took it in his hand, but without any other inconvenience than a slight inflammation in the part.

"Two of my domestics, who had been also inoculated, encouraged by this first attempt, went out into the fields, and soon brought with them another kind of serpent, equally venomous, without sustaining any hurt from it. In a word, I have caught several since that time, without any other preparation than that of having drunk a little juice of the vejuco du guaco; and after repeating these trials, either on myself or my domestics, and always with the completest success, I resolved, in 1791, to give a memoir on this remarkable antidote, in a periodical paper published every week at SantaFé. I added a description of the plant, and every thing that appeared to me necessary for rendering public and general this discovery, so useful to mankind. An account of all my experiments, and of the persons who were present, will be found in that paper, dated Sept. 30, 1791.

"I shall here only observe, that the tradition current among the Indians and negroes of the vice-royship of Santa-Fé, respecting the manner in which the virtue of this plant was discovered, is as follows:-A bird of the kite kind, described by Catesby under the name of the serpent-hawk, feeds chiefly upon snakes in the hot and temperate regions of that part of America. This bird has a monotonous cry, sometimes very disagreeable by its repetition, which imitates the articulated word guaco, on which account the inhabitants have given it that name; and these people say, that when it cries it is to call forth the serpents, over which it exercises a certain kind of authority. They add other extravagant fables: but it is certain that the guaco pursues them wherever it finds them; and that the Indians and negroes, who spend the greater part of their time in the forests and open fields, assert, that to take them with more safety, they prepare themselves by eat→ ing some leaves of the plant in question. This may be true; they may have discovered the virtue of it, and experienced it with success. In this case, as in many others, the instinct of

animals has been of use to us.

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"In regard to the plant, its genus has not yet been classed any book of botany I have ever seen; and for that reason I shall venture to give a description of it as well as I can,

taking advantage of the memoir above-mentioned. The root is fibrous, and extends in every direction. The stem is straight, perfectly cylindric when the plant is tender, but when old becomes pentagonal, that is to say, acquires salient angles. The leaves which grow on the stem stand opposite to each other; are shaped like a heart; have a dark green colour, intermixed with violet; are smooth on the lower side, rough on the upper, and somewhat velvety: its corymbiferous flowers are yellow, flosculous, and have four fleurons in each common calyx. The corolla is monopetalous, infundibuliform, with five indentations; and contains five stamina, united by antheræ, in the form of cylinders, which embrace the style. The style has a stigma deeply divided, and the calyx contains several broad seeds, each with a silky aigrette.

"The plant is vivacious, and is found in the hot and temperate regions of the vice-royship of Santa-Fé. It is, in general, fond of growing on the borders of rivulets, and in shady places, rather than in the open plains. Nature has not produced it in the elevated or cold districts of this continent; and for this reason, no doubt, that its virtue would be useless, as there are no venomous serpents but in the countries where it grows."

The second extract is from a paper read before the French National Institute by M. Ventenat, on the remarkable properties of a Brazilian plant, named there aya-pana.

"The aya-pana grows in South-America, on the right bank of the river of the Amazons. The inhabitants of that country have long considered it as an excellent sudorific, and a powerful alexipharmic, or antidote against the bite of serpents, and the wounds made by poisoned arrows. Its virtues are equally extolled throughout all Brazil, where it is carefully cultivated, and where it is distinguished by the name of the miraculous plant. It is cultivated also in the Isle of France.

"The properties of the aya-pana, if the information communicated to me, and that since transmitted to Madame Bonaparte and C. Jussieu, by Capt. Augustine Baudin himself, can be credited, are not belied at the Isle of France, where this plant enjoys as great celebrity as in its native country. The garden of government is continually beset by diseased persons, who come to solicit a few leaves of the aya-pana to cure their maladies. The colonial gazette daily contains some new proofs of its virtues; and it is employed with success not only against the bite of serpents, but also for curing the dropsy, syphilis in its most inveterate stages, and all sorts of wounds.

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Among the great number of cures effected at the Isle of France by means of the aya-pana, and announced in the zette already mentioned, I shall select three or four, which will show the manner of administering this plant, and the different doses employed, according to the purposes for which it is applied.

"A planter of the Isle of France (C. Cotte) was stung in the right hand by a scorpion: a violent inflammation, accompanied with acute pain, immediately took place. Capt. Baudin advised him to make use of the aya-pana. Several leaves were pounded, and applied to the wound: the pain immediately ceased: at the end of two hours there was no more inflammation, and the hand soon returned to its natural state.

"C. Ponset, an officer of artillery, brought to Capt. Baudin a negro, who, while fishing, had been pricked by a fish known under the name of the last. The prick of this fish is so venomous, that, before the aya-pana was known, amputation of the wounded limb was the only remedy. The hand of the negro was very much swelled. Capt. Baudin recommended the application of the aya-pana pounded; and as he supposed that a great deal would be required to effect a cure, he induced C. Ponset to send some person to the garden of the state to procure a considerable quantity of the leaves, in order that the hand of the patient might be wrapped up in them. But as the garden was at the distance of three leagues, and as the patient suffered a great deal from the pain of the wound, Capt. Baudin resolved to take seven or eight leaves from a young shoot which he had at his house. These he caused to be pounded, and then applied to the part affected. Next day the hand of the black was completely cured.

"A black, whose belly was much swelled, and exhibited symptoms of a dropsy, having applied to a surgeon, the latter resolved to tap him: he, however, deferred the operation, because he had other patients to visit. Being urged by the master of the black to prescribe for him, he said, by way of derision, "Give him an infusion of aya-pana till I return." The surgeon's orders, happily for the patient, were literally complied with. The dropsy made no further progress; the symptoms gradually disappeared; and at the end of a few days the black was in a condition to resume his labours.

"Capt. Baudin, in going on board his vessel, happened to fall and hurt his left leg very much. It was necessary, on his being carried home, to cut off his stocking, in order that the wound might be dressed. Capt. Baudin ordered some leaves VOL. I.

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of the aya-pana to be boiled; and when the decoction was tepid, the wounds were washed with it, and the leaves used for making the decoction were applied to them. The leg was then wrapped up in several folds of a bandage dipped in the same liquor, besprinkling it anew every ten minutes. About

two hours after the first dressing, the inflammation had so much abated that the patient was able to walk with the help of a stick, and at the end of thirteen days he was perfectly cured.

"I could mention a great many more cures effected by means of the famous plant of Brazil; but, as it is not prudent to certify any facts of which one has not been a witness, we ought, in my opinion, to wait till the virtues of the aya-pana have been confirmed by the continued observations of able physicians. The testimony, however, of Capt. Baudin, and that of several persons lately arrived from the Isle of France, are entitled to some confidence, and give us reason to hope that the aya-pana may increase the number of our vegetable productions employed for relieving or curing the evils incident

to the human race.

"It is to be presumed that this plant will be soon multiplied in the gardens of the capital. C. Michaux, who has rendered so great services to botany and agriculture, has sent seeds of it to C. Cels, and Madame Bonaparte has received some from the director of the garden of the state; but as the seeds do not always produce plants, it is to be wished that some living shoots of it could be obtained: they might easily be multiplied from slips, and it might then be possible to form some decisive opinion in regard to the virtues ascribed to this plant.

Though we are allowed to doubt the virtues of the ayapana, the botanical characters of this plant are so simple and easy to be known, that there cannot be the least uncertainty in respect to the genus to which it ought to be referred. The examination I have made of several complete plants, has proved to me that it belongs to the family of the Corymbiferæ, and genus of Eupatorium of Linnæus.

"The stem of this plant, which I have called Eupatorium aya-pana, is straight, full of branches, of a dark brown colour, about three feet in height, and of the size of a goosequill. Its leaves are alternate, almost sessile, lance-formed, and very entire; the flowers are of a bright purple colour, and disposed in corymbi at the summit of the stem and branches.