This article intends to explore the germinal process to validate and «legitimate» an indigenous knowledge towards a therapeutic aim. It tells about a current traditional healing practice: the cure for the bite of snake, by inoculating the juice of a plant called guaco. Various representatives of the cultural elite in the New-Grenade participate in this process, they reveal the enligthened reason in the vice monarchy of the New-Grenade at the end of the 18th century.
