“I know the poison well; it was brought over by Mr. Waterton, whose amusing works you may have read.  It is called the wourali poison, and is said to be extracted from a sort of creeping vine, which grows in the country.  The natives, however, add the poison of snakes to the extract; and the preparation is certainly very fatal, as I can bear witness to.”

“Have you ever seen it tried?”

“Yes, I have tried it myself.  When I was in Italy I became acquainted with Mr. W., and he gave two or three of us, who were living together, a small quantity, not much more than two grains of mustard-seed in size.  We purchased a young mule to make the experiment upon; an incision was made in its shoulder, and the poison inserted under the skin.  I think in about six or seven minutes the animal was dead.  Mr. W. said that the effects would have been instantaneous, if the virtue of the poison had not somewhat deteriorated from its having been kept so long.”

“The wourali poison only acts upon the nerves, I believe?” said the Major.

“Only upon the nerves; and although so fatal, if immediate means are resorted to, a person who is apparently dead from it may be brought to life again by the same process as is usual in the recovery of drowned or suffocated people.  A donkey upon which the poison had acted was restored in this manner, and for the remainder of his days permitted to run in Sir Joseph Banks’s park.  But the poison of snakes acts upon the blood, and therefore occasions death without remedy.”

“But there are remedies, I believe, for even the most fatal poisons?”

“Yes, in His provident mercy God has been pleased to furnish remedies at hand, and where the snake exists the remedy is to be found.  The rattlesnake root is a cure, if taken and applied immediately; and it is well known that the ichneumon when bitten by the cobra capella, in his attack upon it, will hasten to a particular herb and eat it immediately, to prevent the fatal effect of the animal’s bite.”

“I once saw a native of India,” said the Major, “who for a small sum would allow himself to be bitten by a cobra capella.  He was well provided with the same plant used by the ichneumon, which he swallowed plentifully, and also rubbed on the wound.  It is impossible to say, but, so far as I could judge, there was no deception.”

“I think it very possible; if the plant will cure the ichneumon, why not a man?  I have no doubt but that there are many plants which possess virtues of which we have no knowledge.  Some few, and perhaps some of the most valuable, we have discovered; but our knowledge of the vegetable kingdom, as far as its medicinal properties are known, is very slight; and perhaps many which were formerly known have, since the introduction of mineral antidotes, been lost sight of.”

“Why, yes; long before chemistry had made any advances, we do hear in old romances of balsams of most sovereign virtues,” said Alexander, laughing.