126 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[June 1, 1869. 



crawled up my neck and got entangled in my hair ; 

 this I put down entirely to its not being able to ex- 

 tricate itself, for they frequently alighted on my 

 hand and wrist without attempting to sting. I fed 

 them daily with beer and sugar mixed together, and 

 put outside their box. A stray hornet came daily 

 to feed with them, but I never saw it interfere with 

 the wasps at all. I saw it in the midst of some 

 dozen wasps feeding; but wheu a large drone fly at- 

 tempted to share the repast, the hornet flew at it, 

 and carried it off bodily. 



With regard to stings, I may mention that equal 

 parts of common salt and sweet oil will allay all 

 irritation and swelling. One great preventive 

 against such a catastrophe is to be very quiet in 

 your dealings with wasps; any flurry or bustle 

 when you have to handle or feed them excites them 

 greatly, and they would be then very likely to sting. 

 I watched them for weeks, and found them most in- 

 teresting pets, and hope to continue my experiments 

 this summer. X. 



WURALI. 



fTVHIS celebrated poison, also known as Urari and 

 -■- Curare, which was first published to the 

 world by Waterton in the account of his travels, is 

 believed to be the product of more than one plant, 

 the principal ingredient being the juice of Strychnos 

 toxifera, a tree of some rarity even in its own 

 country, Central America. The indefatigable 

 traveller Humboldt never saw the tree itself, only 

 dried branches. Sir R. Schomburgk, the discoverer, 

 or rediscoverer, of the Victoria regia, who spent 

 seven years in traversing Guiana from end to end, 

 saw the living plant, but neither flower nor fruit. 

 Mr. C. Wallis was the first who had it in his power 

 to give an exact description of this remarkable 

 climber from personal observation ; but it cost him 

 no little trouble to find out the habitat of the solitary 

 plant he was able to examine, so rare is it, and so 

 jealously guarded by the Indians, to whom the life- 

 destroying juice is as valuable as gunpowder to a 

 European hunter. This single tree was the only 

 source from whence the precious poison could be 

 obtained within a compass of many miles ; it was 

 therefore prepared by the natives residing in the 

 neighbourhood, and bartered by them among the 

 more distant tribes. 



Wallis, who did not himself see the poison pre- 

 pared, tells us that the Indians bod clown the ex- 

 pressed juice, not, however, in its pure form, but, 

 as stated by other travellers, mingled with the sap 

 of Lasiosloma cirrhosum, Paullinia cururu, Piper 

 geniculatum, &c. According to Humboldt, the 

 venom of serpents is not unfrequcntly added to 

 make the mixture "thick and slab." As soon as it 

 has reached the consistency of syrup, and before it 

 cools, it is poured into small clay vessels, or cala- 



bashes, made from the fruit of Crescentia cujete. 

 When wanted for use, it is moistened with warm 

 water, and smeared on the heads of arrows, which 

 are blown with wonderful accuracy through tubes, 

 often sixteen feet in length, each tube being a 

 single "internode," or space between two joints in 

 a noble reed, named Arundinaria Schomburgkii. 

 So deadly are the effects of the wurali that the 

 stricken animal dies almost immediately, though, 

 singularly enough, the juice of the plant in its fresh 

 state may be applied to the body with impunity. 

 Wallis several times squeezed the juice from the 

 bark, wood, and even seeds of Strychnos toxifera, 

 without experiencing any ill effects ; from which it 

 may be inferred that the poisonous property resides 

 in the root, as is the case with more than one of the 

 " veneniferous " plants. 



This frightful poison has an alkaloid base 

 known among chemists as Curarine, which, how- 

 ever, is believed to be identical with, or to approach 

 very near to, strychine, of whose fatal powers when 

 taken internally we have had several lamentable 

 instances of late years in this country. 



Humboldt tells us that the Otomaki, or earth- 

 eating Indians, of the Orinoco, make a strange use 

 of the Wurali, or Maracuri, as they call it, in their 

 warfare. Their great object in battle is to close 

 with their enemy, and woe to the unhappy wretch 

 who encounters the embrace of an Otomak ! The 

 crafty warrior has anointed his thumb-nails with 

 the deadly wurali, and, thus armed, uses every 

 effort to tear the skin of his opponent : should he 

 succeed, — and the slightest scratch is sufficient, — 

 victory is insured to him, and a sudden and cruel 

 death to his baffled enemy. 



W. W. Spicer. 



The Green Lizard (Lacerta viridis). — An 

 individual of this species, originally purchased at 

 Covent Garden, escaped from my Ward i an case in 

 June, 1867. One day last week I recovered the 

 little tenant, nearly two years having elapsed from 

 the time of its escape. Odd enough, I myself made 

 the capture, but only about two hundred yards from 

 my house, in a sandy bank, close to a road leading 

 to a great railway station. It was a warm sunny 

 day, and my attention was attracted to the spot by 

 several passers-by, who had been arrested in their 

 way to and from the station by the beautiful 

 creature appearing at the mouth of the holes which 

 it had excavated in the bank to a considerable 

 length and depth, and where, at one place, was a 

 kind of nest formed by a large quantity of bits of 

 dry grass. With a spade I dug the lizard out, and 

 re-obtained it in more than its original brilliancy, and 

 very plump. It appears then that the species can 

 well survive our milder winters, but I think that Dr. 

 Martin endeavoured to naturalize them in the Isle of 

 Wight without success.— B. G., North Staffordshire. 



