Curiosities of Medical ExperienceMillingen, J. G. (John Gideon)
Philosophy
Curiosities of Medical Experience
Millingen, J. G. (John Gideon)
Medicine
The Indians of Guiana dip their arrows in the juice of the _Woorara_, and
the _Curara_, which also occasions rapid death and decomposition of the
lungs. Humboldt informs us that the _Curara_ is obtained from the bark of
a tree called _Vejuco_ de _Mavacure_; it is inspissated over a slow fire
and then mixed with a gum drawn from the _Kiracagnero_. The Abbe Salvador
Gilii tells us in his history of America, that he has seen the strongest
animals succumb instantly when thus wounded, but the poison does not
produce any effect on their meat.
HOMOPHAGOUS AND POLYPHAGOUS.
These are appellations given to certain individuals of a depraved
appetite, that enables them to devour raw meat, and various other
substances which most unquestionably would destroy any person not gifted
or cursed with such an omnivorous digestion.
Various are the ancient stories related of such voracious wretches. Ovid
describes one Erisichthon, who, as a punishment for cutting down the
groves of Ceres, (very possibly to obtain fuel to cook his food,) was
sentenced to perpetual hunger, and terminated his gluttonous career by
eating up his own limbs. Theagenes thought nothing of an ox for his
dinner; and the famed Crotonian athlete, Milo, knocked down bullocks with
his fist for his daily meals, which usually consisted of twenty _minae_ of
meat and the same ration of bread. Vopiscus relates that a man was brought
before the Emperor Maximilian, who devoured a whole calf, and was
proceeding to eat up a sheep, had he not been prevented. To this day, in
India, some voracious mountebanks devour a live sheep as an exhibition.
Dr. Boehmen of Wittenberg witnessed the performance of one of these
polyphagous individuals, who commenced his repast by eating a raw sheep, a
sucking-pig, and, by way of dessert, swallowed sixty pounds of prunes,
stones and all. On another festive occasion, he ate two bushels of
cherries, with several earthen vases, and chips of a furnace. This meal
was followed up by sundry pieces of glass and pebbles, a shepherd's
bagpipe, rats, various birds with their feathers, and an incredible number
of caterpillars. To conclude his dinner, he swallowed a pewter inkstand,
with its pens, a pen-knife, and a sandbox. During this deglutition he
seemed to relish his food, but was generally under the influence of
potations of brandy. His form was athletic, and he could carry four heavy
men on his shoulders for a league. He lived to the age of seventy-nine,
but died in a most emaciated state, and, as might be imagined, toothless.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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