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 effect upon me." He adds that he had still remaining by him a small quantity of the root, but never had an opportunity of trying the experiment. It is very much to be regretted that he did not give it to some person who would have tried it upon an animal, as might so easily have been done.

M. Jaquin, in a letter to Linnæus, says that the Indians in the West Indies charm serpents with the Aristolochia Anguicida. Forskohl also informed him that the Egyptians used a species of Aristolochia, (Birthwort,) but did not determine which species it is.

It has now been known for more than two thousand years, that some of the barbarous tribes both of Asia and Africa possess this secret, and yet no civilized nation has ever even attempted to procure the knowledge of a fact which very probably might lead to the most impor-