Note 52 — ON STEPPES AND DESERTS.
Henry G. (Henry George) Bohn translation
p. 20.—“Deal certain death with a poisoned thumb-nail.”
The Otomacs frequently poison their thumb-nails with curare. The mere impress of the nail proves fatal, should the curare become mixed with the blood. We have in our possession the creeping plant, from the juice of which the curare is prepared, in the Esmeralda Mission, on the Upper Orinoco, 152but, unfortunately, we did not find the plant when in blossom. From its physiognomy, it seems to be allied to Strychnos.[HV]
Since I wrote the above notice of the Curare, or Urari, as the plant and poison were called by Raleigh, the brothers Robert and Richard Schomburgk have rendered important service to science by making us accurately acquainted with the nature and mode of preparing this substance, which I was the first to bring to Europe in any considerable quantity. Richard Schomburgk found this creeping plant in flower in Guiana, on the banks of the Pomeroon and Sururu, in the territory of the Caribs, who are, however, ignorant of the mode of preparing the poison. His instructive work[HW] gives the chemical analysis of the juice of the Strychnos toxifera, which, notwithstanding its name and organic structure, contains, according to Boussingault, no trace of strychnine. Virchow’s and Münter’s interesting physiological experiments show that the curare or urari poison does not appear to destroy by resorption from without, but chiefly when it is absorbed by the animal substance after the separation of the continuity of the latter; that curare does not belong to tetanic poisons; and that it especially produces paralysis, i.e., a cessation of voluntary muscular movement, while the function of the involuntary muscles (as the heart and intestines) continues unimpaired.[HX]