muscles of the pectus, which had been divided in the dissection, a trembling vibratory motion was observed full twenty minutes after the motions of life had ceased.

The Wourali poison of Demarara would appear to be quicker and less excruciating in its production of death. According to Mr Waterton a large ox, weighing one thousand pounds, was shot with three arrows. The poison took effect in four minutes; and in twenty-five minutes the animal was dead. The death appears to be extremely gentle. The poison is usually applied to a small dart, which is discharged with wonderful accuracy, and to great distances, by a blow-pipe, exactly like those of Java, which is a singular coincidence. To return to the antshar:

Experiment 14. A fowl, of middling size, was punctured in the muscles of the thigh, with a poisoned dart, from Banjoo-wangee. During the first hour, it was little affected by the wound. In about two hours it appeared drowsy, and had slight shiverings; it continued drooping and quiet till twenty-four hours after the puncture, when it died.

Experiment 15. Having obtained an arrow from the island of Boli, supposed to be armed with the oopas from Borneo, Dr Horsfield wounded a dog in the muscles of the thigh. He died in fifty-five minutes, with all the symptoms already noticed in the other cases, and the appearances, on dissection, were the same.

Experiment 16. Having moistened some of the oopas from the island of Borneo, and having rendered it somewhat fluid with cold water, Dr Horsfield applied a dart, and wounded a dog, in the usual manner. The first three minutes he appeared little affected by the wound; on the fifth, the drowsiness came on; and, after the usual symptoms, he died in the fifteenth minute, after violent tremors, convulsions, and screaming. A creeping undulatory motion of the skin, after death, over the surface of the whole body, was observed in this and several other instances.

Experiment 17. This was made at Soorakarta, in March, 1812, with the poison of the antshar, collected at Banjoowangee, in July, 1806. A dog, of middling size, was wounded, in the usual manner, in the muscles of the thigh, with a dart that had been dipped into the poison, about twenty-four hours before, and, during the interval, had been exposed to the open air of a chamber. He died in the thirtieth minute. The dissection exhibited the usual phenomena.

Experiment 18. A dog, of middling size, was wounded in the muscles of the thigh, with a dart covered with the fresh prepared poison of tshittik. In two minutes he shewed symptoms of uneasiness, he appeared faint, and lay down; in three minutes and an half he was seized with convulsive twitchings of the extremities, was very restless, and his breathing became quick; these symptoms gradually increasing to the sixth minute, while he continued in a lying posture, as if exhausted. He then raised himself, extended his head, as if attempting to leap, but fell down; was seized with violent convulsions, attended by quick and interrupted breathing, to the ninth minute, when he died.

Experiment 19. A small dog was wounded, in the usual manner, in the muscles of the thigh, with the poison of the tshittik. He immediately placed himself in a drooping posture, his fore legs bent, as in kneeling; and thus he continued to the fifth minute, when trembling and convulsions came on, and he died quietly in the eleventh minute.

Experiment 20. A fowl, nearly full grown, was pierced through the muscles of the thigh, with an arrow armed with tshittik. After the first impression was over, it seemed insensible to the wound, for about one minute, walking round, and picking up grains, as usual. Near the second minute it became giddy, and it died in the ninth minute.

Experiment 21. A fowl was wounded with a dart poisoned with tshittik, in the back, near the left wing, the puncture extending towards the cavity of the thorax. In less than one minute, it shewed symptoms of uneasiness, and it died in the fourth minute.

Experiment 22. A fowl was wounded, in the usual manner, with an arrow covered with the oopas of tshittik, which had not been mixed with the spices employed in the preparation. On the fortieth second, it picked its breast violently, as if it felt an itching. In one minute it reeled round, fell down forwards, fluttered, and was seized with convulsions, which continued to the third minute, when it died.

Experiment 23. A fowl was wounded with a poisoned dart, two years after the preparation of the poison. It died two minutes after the puncture.

Experiment 24. A small portion of the bark of the tshittik was infused in alcohol. Having been macerated for a few days, it was exposed to the open air, for co-operation, and a small quantity of a beautiful brown shining resin was obtained. A dart was covered with a few grains of this,

and a fowl wounded, in the usual manner. The first three minutes after the puncture, it remained quiet, and appeared drooping; in the fourth minute it reeled backwards, tottered, and its limbs were relaxed; in the sixth minute it appeared to be sleepy, but its drowsiness was frequently interrupted by twitchings and startings; in eight minutes it tottered, but soon became drowsy again; in twelve minutes it fell down, convulsed and trembling, but soon became quiet, and its breathing was quick; in the seventeenth minute it had occasional twitchings in the extremities, and was unable to stand erect; in the twentieth minute the drowsiness had considerably diminished; it rose, and supported itself, but tottered, in attempting to walk. From the thirtieth minute it began to revive; all the effects gradually went off; and, in the sixtieth minute, it was apparently well.

Experiment 25. A dog, of a middling size, was wounded in the muscles of the thigh, with a dart, which, having been dipped into the oopas, collected in Blambangan six years previous, was exposed half an hour to the open air, to give the poison time to dry. He died, in violent convulsions, in the ninth minute. Dissection shewed similar appearances to those exhibited in the former cases.

Experiment 26. To a nearly full-grown dog, about half the quantity of poison generally adhering to a dart was given, in a little boiled rice. During the first ten minutes he remained quiet, and appeared a little drowsy; in the fourteenth minute he could with difficulty support himself erect, and indicated symptoms of pain; he shewed some disposition to vomit, and extended his jaws; in twenty-eight minutes he extended his hind legs spasmodically; in thirtyone minutes he had violent spasms over his whole frame; in thirty-seven minutes he stood, breathing hastily, and his abdomen appeared uneasy; in thirty-nine minutes he had spasmodic extensions of his extremities, which lasted half a minute, when he became quiet; but, being faint, supported himself against a wall; in forty-six minutes he started up, convulsed; in forty-eight minutes he appeared oppressed in the head, and drowsy; in fifty-four minutes he started up suddenly; in sixty minutes he appeared oppressed and drowsy; in sixty-one minutes he fell back, in violent convulsions, his extremities strongly contracted by spasms, after which he became calm; in the sixty-third minute, being roused, and attempting to walk, he fell backwards, with violent spasms and convulsions; in sixty-five minutes, having raised himself

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with difficulty, he stood, with his extremities far extended, and his muscles in a state of spasmodic contraction; in sixty-seven minutes he fell down, head foremost, violently convulsed, his breathing became interrupted; and, in the sixty-ninth minute, he died. On opening the abdomen, several ounces of a clear serous fluid, mixed with streaks of newly coagulated blood, were found effused in the cavity. The vessels of the external coats of the stomach, of the intestines, and mesentery, were in the highest possible degree inflamed, and distended beyond their natural size, having evidently been acted on by the most violent force. The stomach being opened, was found empty; its internal coat was corrugated, and covered with frothy mucus, in which were found the remains of the poison, a dark yellow fluid, with some grains of the rice in which it was conveyed. In the thorax, the lungs were still florid, the venæ much distended, the aorta nearly empty; being punctured, the blood flowed out, of a dark hue. On exposing the brain to view, the dura mater was nearly natural, only the larger vessels were somewhat more distended than usual. The vessels of the brain itself indicated a slight degree of inflammation.

cavæ

In the above experiments, the poison was always applied by a pointed arrow, or dart, made of bamboo, with a spearshaped extremity, about an inch long, and a line and a half broad, near the middle of its length. The poison appeared most active after having adhered twenty-four hours to the weapon. If applied in a fluid state, it does not enter the wound in a sufficient quantity to produce its effects; but, in thrusting the dart through the muscles, the poison separates itself from it, and adheres externally to the integuments. The rapidity of the effect of the oopas of the antshar, depends much on the size of the vessels wounded, and on the quantity of poison carried into the circulation. The poison, from different parts of the island, has been found nearly equal in activity. The oopas appears to affect different quadrupeds with nearly equal force, proportionate, in some degree, to their size and disposition. A mouse died in ten minutes; a buffalo in two hours and ten minutes. The quantity of the poison introduced into the buffalo, was hardly equal to that thrown into the system of the lesser animals experimented on, the dart having fallen from the wound, before a sufficient quantity had been taken into the circulation to produce a rapid effect. Mr Leschenaut de la Tour stabbed a buffalo, a

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number of times successively, with a common Javanese pike, largely covered with the poison of the tshittik, without very sensibly affecting the animal. It is necessary that the poisoned point should remain in the wound for some little time, to allow the poison to take effect. The natives of Macassar, Borneo, and the eastern islands, use this poison on an arrow of bamboo, with a shark's tooth at the point of it, which they throw from a blow-pipe, or sompit.

The simple unprepared sap is rendered equally, or perhaps more active, by being mixed with the extract of tobacco, or stramonium, instead of the spices used in preparing the oopas. Even the pure juice, unmixed and unprepared, appears to act with as much force as that prepared according to the manner of the Javanese of Blambangan, as appears by the fifth and tenth experiments.

Fowls seem to have a peculiar capacity to resist the effects of the poison. In the fourteenth experiment, a fowl did not die till twenty-four hours after the wound ; and others have recovered, after being partially affected.

The operation of the poison made from the tshittik is far more violent and rapid than that made from the antshar, and it affects the animal system in a different manner: while the antshar acts chiefly on the stomach and alimentary canal, the respiration and circulation, the tshittik is determined to the brain and nervous system. After the previous symptoms of faintness, drowsiness, and slight convulsions, it acts by a sudden impulse, which, like a violent apoplexy, prostrates at once the whole nervous system. The tshittik poison affects fowls in a much more violent manner than the antshar. In young fowls death has frequently occurred in the space of a minute after the puncture with a poisoned dart. The simple unmixed decoction of the bark of the root of the tshittik is nearly as active as the poison prepared by the process so fully detailed.

The twenty-fourth experiment shews plainly that the resinous portion of the bark is by no means so powerful as the particles soluble in water. The strength of the poison remains unimpaired for a number of years, if carefully preserved. Taken into the stomach of quadrupeds, also, the tshittik acts as a violent poison, but it requires about twice the period to produce the same effect as a wound. But the stomach of fowls can resist its operation; for, having mixed about double the quantity adhering to a dart with the food of a fowl, it consumed it without shewing any marks of