- And, in the nectar of the yellowest Cane,
- Much acor,1 oil, and mucilage abound:
- But in the less mature, from mountain-land,
- These harsh intruders so redundant float,
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Muster so strong, as scarce to be subdued. [355]
- MUSE, sing the ways to quell them. Some use Cane,
- That Cane, whose juices to the tongue apply’d,
VER. 350. For taste, for colour, and for various use:] It were impossible, in the short limits of a note, to enumerate the various uses of Sugar; and, indeed, as these are in general so well known, it is needless. A few properties of it, however, wherewith the learned are not commonly acquainted, I shall mention. In some places of the East-Indies, an excellent arrack is made from the Sugar-Cane: And, in South-America, Sugar is used as an antidote against one of the most sudden, as well as fatal poisons in the world. Taken by mouth, pocula morte carent,2 this poison is quite innocent; but the slightest wound made by an arrow, whose point is tinged therewith, proves immediate death; for, by driving all the blood of the body immediately to the heart, it forthwith bursts it.3 The fish and birds killed by these poisoned arrows (in the use of which the Indians are astonishingly expert) are perfectly wholesome to feed on. See Ulloa and De la Condamine’s account of the great river of Amazon.4 It is a vegetable preparation.
VER. 357. That Cane] This, by the natives, is emphatically called the Dumb Cane;5 for a small quantity of its juice being rubbed on the brim of a drinking vessel, whoever drinks out of it, soon after will have his lips and tongue enormously swelled. A physician, however, who wrote a short account of the diseases of Jamaica, in Charles II.’s time, recommends it both by the mouth and externally, in dropsical and other cases:6 But I cannot say, I have had any experience of its efficacy in these disorders. It grows wild in the mountains; and, by its use in Sugar-making, should seem to be somewhat of an alcalescent7 nature. It grows to four feet high, having, at the top, two green shining leaves, about nine inches long; and, between these, a small spire emerges.
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Acidic or sour substance. ↩︎
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“The cups contain no death.” ↩︎
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The poison Grainger refers to is curare, an extract obtained from the bark of South American trees of the genera Strychnos and Chondrodendron that relaxes and paralyzes voluntary muscles. Curare’s use as an arrow poison was reported by Europeans from their earliest encounters with Amerindians in South America. ↩︎
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Charles-Marie de La Condamine (1701-1774), a French scientist, participated with Ulloa in a geodesic mission to the equator in Peru to measure the earth’s true shape. After the mission was completed, La Condamine published the Relation abrégée d’un voyage fait dans l’intérieur de l’Amérique méridionale (1745) and Journal du voyage fait par ordre du roi a l’équateur (1751). ↩︎
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Dieffenbachia seguine. The dumb cane looks very similar to sugarcane, and colonists often would eat it, mistaking it for the sugarcane. The dumb cane contains a poisonous sap, however, that swells the tongues of those who consume it and prevents them from speaking for several hours. Its native range is the Caribbean and tropical South America. ↩︎
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Grainger is referring to Thomas Trapham, author of A Discourse of the State of Health in the Island of Jamaica (1679). ↩︎
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Also alkalescent. Tending to become alkaline (having a pH greater than 7). ↩︎