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The Toad as Earth Mother: A Problem in Symbolism and Psychopharmacology.


Pages: 158 - 165

Abstract

These spectacularly colored frogs and their poisons have been well-studied by toxicologists and heapetologists (Daly and Witkop,1971; Daly and Myers, 1967). Some species were found to be astonishingly venomous - the secretion of one tree frog measuring less than an inch in length was judged sufficient to kill a thousand mice! In fact the venoms of certain species utilized by the Indians were found to constitute the most powerful natural toxins known to man, and several species have turned out to be so potent that they cannot even be handled safely without causing severe physical discomfort, including extreme irritation to the eyes, nose, and throat. While none of these poisons should be called "hallucinogenic," even in the sense in which this can be said of bufotenine, some of their constituents are known to affect the central nervous system, which may contribute to the supematural effects ascribed to them by some Amazonian Indians. For that matter, however a particular Indian interprets the experience with toad or frog poison, whether taken intemally or rubbed into a wound, it is scientifically inexact in the extreme to equate these animal poisons , including the venom of Bufo Marinus , with the botanical hallucinogens: the massive assault on the system brought on by bufotenine-containing Bufo venom is of a very different order than the shift from one state of consciousness to another triggered by bufotenine containing snuff .