The Discovery of Curare & Two Forms of Christianity

In the early 1800s, the German naturalist and explorer Baron Alexander von Humboldt journeyed through South America on a scientific expedition. Deep in the Amazon rainforest, he encountered Indigenous tribes who used a mysterious poison on their blow darts to bring down monkeys and other game almost instantly. Intrigued, Humboldt investigated how the poison—curare—was made.

But he soon discovered a second use for the poison when he became gravely ill. A village shaman forced him to drink a small amount of curare, diluted…