*
curare, muscle relaxant (notably used in surgery) from Chondrodendron sp.
Using
curare to poison blow darts is widespread among Amazonian indians, but the procedure described by Cochrane is not.
And his chef's book The Forme Of Cury, from the Latin "
curare" meaning "to dress food", paved the way for today's foodie bibles.
Along the way they noted how Amazonians used
curare as poison, how they tapped an amazing latex from rubber trees, and how they stunned fish by sprinkling a plant-based powder on a stream's surface, as well as other ethnographic details.
It would also exclude patients who are physically able to commit physician-assisted suicide but prefer to die by a particular method of active euthanasia--such as a barbiturate to sedate the patient followed by a lethal injection of
curare. This peaceful way of dying is not feasible as a method of physician-assisted suicide because the sedation caused by the barbiturate would diminish the patient's ability to effectively self-administer the lethal injection.
The introduction of a muscle relaxant called
curare had cut the number of deaths during major surgery.
His finding with the greatest impact on pharmacology was probably the discovery, made in the 1850's, of the site of action of
curare.
Curare, a plant extract that causes muscle paralysis, was used for centuries by Native Americans in South America to poison the tips of arrows.
The book is full of improbable suggestions for doing away with one's "mark," such as asking the local pet shop to special order a blowfish for your aquarium so you can extract poison ("150,000 times more potent than
curare") from the fish's bladder.
Medications Known to Aggravate Myasthenia Gravis "Mycin" antibiotics Clindamycin Vancomycin Polymyxin B Amikacin Kanamycin Neomycin Streptomycin Tobramycin Morphine Diuretics Procainamide Beta-Blockers Atenolol Nadolol Propranolol Timolol Succinylcholine Over-the-counter cold medications (many contain quinine
Curare Quinidine D Penicillamine Chloroquine Trimethadione
This was the first time it had been explored in depth by a European since Orellana (see 1542), and La Condamine brought back the first rubber and
curare to Europe.
Other poisonous yard plants include rhododendron (which poisons even the honey of bees gathering nectar from its flowers), all forms of jessamines (which hail from the same plant family that produces
curare and strychnine), the cherry laurel (whose poison kills without symptoms), and wisteria, azalea, and boxwood shrubs.
Of course
curare was always involved, but I can never remember them actually showing what a dart looked like, so it lent just that much more to the blowgun mystique.
