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NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS 445
(1843, p. xvii.): "At valcle fallerentur, qui putarent,
Brasiliae plantas medicas omnes per autochthones
colonis esse oblatas ;
potius
multa me movent, ut
dicam, totidem, quae nunc adhibentur, a nigris et
albis incolis esse detectas et usu cognatas, quot ab
illis." Of external applications, I have seen only
the following. For a wound or bruise or swelling,
the milky juice of some tree is spread thick on the
skin, where it hardens into a sort of plaster, and
is allowed to remain on until it falls* of itself.
Almost any milky tree may serve, if the juice be not
acrid; but the Heveas (India-rubbers), Sapotads,
and some Clusiads are preferred. Such a plaster
has sometimes an excellent effect in protecting the
injured part from the external air.
At Tarapoto, in the Eastern Peruvian Andes,
where the people are all Christians, and some of
them almost pure white, where there are churches
and priests and schools, such medicine as they have
is little more than necromantic practices of their
curanderos. In all sicknesses the first curative
operation is to sobar el espanto (rub out the fright),
which is done thus : Chew
called "sonitonio," place
a piece of the gum-resin
it in the hollow of the
hand, and with it rub the legs of the sick person,
from the knees downwards, and end by whistling
between all the toes. There are other ridiculous
and useless operations, but in some cases the
beneficial. Take this mode of
rubbing is really
"rubbing out colic" as an example. Put a little
fowl's grease in the hand, and rub it over the body
of the patient, round and round, over the course
of the colon, making every
now and then a forcible
twist and pressure on the navel, para
soltar el