die indeed, but were plainly indisposed; insomuch that they lost their vivacity, and became very sullen. Eight days after this experiment, he repeated it on these same animals; and then they became still weaker and fainter. In fine, the next he made it a third time on them, when they languished four or five days, and then died.

August the 15th, after having put some of the same poison into a wound made in the right hinder leg of six horses, one of which was a very vigorous stone-horse, he quickly bled them all in the neck to fainting: two of them escaped with life; but those that were the weakest, and most worn out could not stand against this operation. Two days afterwards, he again pricked those horses that did not die of the last experiment; and then they died in about eight minutes,

He made the following observations on these animals, from the insertion of the poison to their death. The muscle, wounded by the incision made for insinuating the poison, was contracted and relaxed alternatively, just as it happens in animals fresh killed : this lasted about two minutes; after which these animals seemed restless and impatient, endeavouring to scrape the ground with their fore foot, which he had suspended in the air with a cord, to prevent their running away. Sometimes also they made a sudden effort, as if to get away, which lasted the space of two minutes; after which they grew quiet, and amused themselves with nipping Then their respiration the grass, but not in a natural manuer. became very difficult; and, though the weather was very hot, there visibly came out of their nostrils a vapour, like that which issues in winter in the time of expiration. A minute after, he observed that these horses endeavoured to rest the suspended leg on something: and, in another minute, he perceived the fore leg, that rested on the ground, beginning to grow weak, and bend; which occasioned these animals to fall forward, and rise up again alternately, with more or less difficulty. In two minutes more, their hind legs grew weak, and bent under them, like the fore legs; and in fine, these animals fell down like a dead lump, without being able to rise again, though he whipped them severely. Then their sides began to work, and the whole habit of the body was seized with a dreadful horror. He whipped them, and pricked them with a pin ; but in vaio; for they gave no sign of feeling. All the muscles of

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their action, but those of respiration, and those of the ears and eyes. the trunk and extremities were become paralytic; and none retained These creatures continued in this condition about two minutes; after which their respiration became so operose, that each inspira. tion consisted of three successive attempts, and then followed a most precipitate expiration, accompanied with so violent a hiccup, that the body bending double, the hind legs were pulled quite to the fore legs. In fine, this manner of taking in and letting out breath lasted one minute; in which time their eyes were darkened, and

death ensued.

He opened the dead bodies of these horses, and observed as follows: the blood was of a deep-brown colour, and spouted out in a full stream, which lasted near a minute, both from the arteries and veins, which he cut. This phenomenon surprized him much, as well as the horse-flayer, who attended him, and assured him that

very

he had never seen the like. The muscles were flaccid, blackish, and cold. The heart was so violently contracted, that, in cutting it across, he could not see any appearance of the ventricles, till he I pulled their sides asunder by force. The ungs and liver were

stuffed with blood.

In making the small wounds, for introducing the poison, great care must be taken, to avoid cutting any trunk of an artery or vein; because, when that happens, the blood that issues out, carries off a good part of the poison; which makes the animal pine more or less without dying; or, if he dies, it is in a longer or shorter time, according to the quantity of the poison that has got into the vessels, and been mixed with the circulating fluid. This thing happened to him in trying the experiment on a mare, which had been condemned to the laystall. This beast lived about four hours, because the wound bled abundantly, and hindered the success of the experiment, for the reasons alleged above.

November 18, he took a small steel arrow, and poisoned it with the poison of ticunas mixed with that of lamas. He caused this arrow to be shot into the right hinder leg of a bear, belonging to M. de Reaumur, which he wanted to have killed, in order to put it into his cabinet of natural history. The creature immediately roar ed out, from the anguish of the puncture; after which he made a tour round the stable, in which he was, without seeming to be in

any pain. Soon afterwards he fell on his side, and died in less than five minutes, having his throat squeezed, as if he had been strangled.

M. le Chevalier de Grossée had an eagle, which he had kept a good while in his court-yard, and intended to make a present of it to M. de Reaumur, to adorn his cabinet, but wanted to know how to put it to death without damaging the feathers. M. de Reaumur sent him the same arrow above-described, which had been fresh dipped in the poison; it was struck into the wing of this large bird, which dropped down dead in an instant.

Such are the chief experiments, which M. H. made with the poison of ticunas and lamas: and the following are the results of his observations. 1. In almost all the animals, which he killed with the poison of ticunas and lamas, he observed, that in general they seemed to feel little or no pain before dying, by the action of this poison. 2. That before they die, these animals are seized with a sudden and almost universal palsy. 3. Though the colour of the blood seemed to be altered in certain animals, yet we ought not to draw any inference from thence; because in many others the blood had undergone no sort of alteration, either in colour or consistence. 4. That all the muscles are so vastly contracted in the animals thus poisoned, that there is not a drop of blood to be found in them, whatever way you cut into them. These muscles are clammy to the touch, and seem to approach the condition of flesh beginning to be tainted, which feels clammy. 5. That he did not know a more certain rule for determining that an animal died by the energy of this poison, than this state of the flesh which feels clammy immediately after death; but a person must have handled it more than once, if he would avoid being mistaken. 6. That the whole mass of blood, during the action of the poison, is carried in abundance into the liver and lungs. 7. That neither sugar nor sea-salt ought to be regarded as a specific antidote; because the poison operates so quick, that it does not allow time for these drugs to act, so as to prevent death. He had found nothing but red-hot iron applied in time, that cures with sufficient certainty. 8. That the more the animal is of a lively and sanguine constitution, the more speedily and forcibly the poison acts. 9. The lustier and fatter the animal is, the more poison, and time also, are required for producing the expected effects.

::

He remarks, that the poison must be dried on the instrument, before it be struck into the animal, which we intend to kill: for if it be liquid, it remains on the outside of the wound, while the instrument penetrates into the flesh in which case, either the animal dies not all, or at least with great difficulty: as it happened with regard to a wolf, which did not die, though the arrow above-mentioned was struck into one of his thighs; because the poison, which it retained from the dip, continued liquid, and remained on the outside of the wound made by the arrow in piercing the flesh. Therefore time must be allowed for the poison to become hard on the instrument, which is intended to be used; that so, entering into the wound together with the weapon, it may be there diluted, and carried in the course of the circulation to those parts which it must effect, in order to cause death.

M. Fontana's observations on the same poisons in a dried state, seem to prove that the fume of the material whether inhaled or smelled into, is very innocent. That it was perfectly soluble in water, even cold, and in mineral acids as well as vegetable. That it did not effervesce with alkalies, nor acids, nor caused any change in milk. That it neither turned the acid of radishes red nor green. That this poison had no more effect when applied to the eye, than if it were bathed in water. That if taken internally it proves deleterious, but that a considerable quantity is required to kill even a small animal. By passing threads impregnated with the poison, and then dried, through the skins of rabbits and Guinea pigs, and other animals, they died in a short time. If applied to the skin lightly scratched in birds and quadrupeds, it proves for the most part mortal, although not always.

A hundredth part of a grain will kill a small animal; but the poison must be dissolved, either to occasion death, or any disorder of the animal economy. Where there are fewer blood vessels, the poison is the least efficacious. If the poison be applied, being previously dissolved in the mineral acids, its effects seem to be destroyed. Rum and vinegar seem not to extinguish its effects; and even the acids seem useless and dangerous, when applied to the muscles of an animal. It requires a more considerable time to act than the venom of the viper. The effects of both poisons may be remedied by a ligature round the limb, or by amputation, if done in

time.

Mr. Fontana likewise observes, that this poison does not act on animals of cold blood. This poison hinders likewise the coagulation of the blood from those killed by it; but if introduced into the blood by the jugular vein, it produces death; and that it does not act on the nerves, but only on the blood.

[Phil. Trans. Pantolog.

SECTION IX.

Bohan, or Bohan-upas.

JAVA appears to be possessed of various trees, the juices of which are fatally poisonous. These vegetable poisons, in the language of the country are called upases. In the first section of the present chapter we have noticed the destructive power of two of these upases--the upas tienté and the upas antiar. The tree named bohan, concerning which we have hitherto received no sys. tematic description, produces a upas, or vegetable poison, of a still Its effects indeed have been very unnecessa❤ more active nature. rily exaggerated by many writers, but they are truly marvellous in the plain unvarnished fact.

The best and most satisfactory description we have hitherto received of the bohan tree, and its extraordinary and fatal secretion, has been communicated by M. Delille, a translation of whose paper in English was read in June, 1810, before the fellows of the Royal Society. M. Delille is a French physician, a member of the Na. tional Institute of Egypt, and transmitted this paper from the East Indies to the Royal Society, by means of an English lady. The botanical account of this poisonous plant he received from one of the French naturalists who accompanied Capt. Baudin, and who resided some time in Java; where he visited the interior of the country, and with much difficulty succeeded in prevailing on the natives to show him the different poison-plants, which they careHence the reason fully conceal in order to use them during war.

of so many fables as have been repeated respecting the extraordinary destructiveness and influence of the upas, which in the language of the Javanese signifies vegetable poison, and is applied only to the juice of the bohan tree, and another twisted-stemmed plant.