Part of this infusion, together with the root, is applied to the wound, and the rest taken inwardly by the patient. It is generally sufficient to do this once. But if it be necessary to repeat it a second and a third time, the force of the poison is destroyed, the swelling subsides, and the wound heals. The sooner you apply this remedy, the quicker and more certainly you will repress the progress of the poison. Taught by the experience of eighteen years, I affirm it to be superior to all other remedies. With it we have triumphed over the poison of every snake but the rattle-snake. I cannot count the number of Indians I have healed with this precious root. An Indian Guarany, as he was lying on the ground out of doors, was bitten by a serpent. When the poor wretch crawled to my town I prepared him for death with sacred rites, which the violent pain of the swelled wound, and the cries extorted by it from the wounded man seemed to presage. I had only a few drops of brandy remaining: these, with the root of the nard, I applied to the wound. Afterwards, as the extreme pain indicated that the poison was not yet expelled from his body, I saw him recover in three days by the use of the root with wine, which I substituted for brandy. No one will deny that tobacco leaves possess much virtue against the bites of serpents. A Guarany was wounded in the right foot in two places by a snake, as he was reposing at noon on a journey. I was asked for medicine, and as no nard was at hand, and we were many leagues from the town, I advised the father of the wounded man to put a tobacco leaf into his mouth, and to suck both the wounds. He replied that he had already done so; I then told him to burn tobacco leaves, letting the smoke enter the wounds, and to apply a cataplasm of chewed tobacco to the same; I also desired the wounded man himself to chew tobacco, swallow its juice, and smoke it through a reed, giving him likewise a vial of brandy to drink. The poison at length was so much repressed by these trifling remedies that the sick man recovered his strength sufficiently to pursue his journey to the town. The warmth of the brandy counteracts the cold of the poison, and restores the heat of the stomach and of the blood. Father Gumilla declares that serpents will die if a tobacco leaf be thrust into their mouths. We learn from the same author that, in the new kingdom of Granada, the Americans drink gun-powder mixed with brandy to cure the bites of serpents, and that it produces the desired effect. The Abipones, Mocobios, and Tobas, as soon as they feel themselves bitten by a serpent, cover the wound with virgin wax, which is thought to absorb the poison. At another time they have it sucked out by their physicians. They sometimes scrape a crocodile's tooth, drink the dust in water, and at the same time bind a whole crocodile's tooth very tight on to the open wound. Our druggist at Cordoba, wishing to try the virtue of this