Dr. Horsfield's Researches in Java, 397 



Dr. Horsfield communicated to the eighth volume of the Batavian 

 Transactions, likewise at the instance of the President, several 



states tliat "it appears from these experiments, that the upas antiar, when 

 inserted into a wound, produces death (as infusion of tobacco does when in- 

 jected into the intestine) by rendering the heart insensible to the stimulus of 

 the blood, and stopping the circulation." — Phil. Trans. 1811, p. 196 — 198. 



Dr. Horsfield relates seventeen experiments, selected from a larger number: 

 eight of them were performed on dogs ; six others on the Lemur volans^ Linn., 

 Lutra leptonj/x, Horsf., a mouse, a monkey, a cat, and the Javan domestic ox, 

 respectively ; and three on birds. The appearances on dissection are des- 

 cribed in eight instances. All but two of the experiments were made with 

 poison collected by Dr. H. himself, within six years after the period of its 

 collection ; but in most instances with still fresher antshar, and in six cases 

 with the fresh sap unprepared. The poison was always applied by means of 

 a pointed dart of bambu, dipped into the fluid antshar, which was suffered 

 to dry upon it by spontaneous evaporation, (for when used in a fluid state it 

 adhered to the integuments, and could not be inserted in the wound in suffici- 

 ent quantity :) with the weapon so prepared, the wound was made and 

 poisoned at the same time, the integuments however having been previously 

 divided. — Trans. Bat. Soc, vol. vii, art. 8. 



It appears from a comparison of the two series of experiments, that the re- 

 sults obtained by Dr. Horsfield agree in all essential circumstances with those 

 described by Mr. Brodie ; and therefore confirm the inference which that 

 physiologist has drawn respecting the mode of action of the poison. The 

 symptoms and appearances on dissection agree in both, so far as detailed in a 

 comparable manner ; but Dr. Horsfield does not appear to have attended to 

 the state of the heart while the anintial remained alive; which organ iMr. 

 Brodie found to beat feebly and irregularly before respiration was affected. 

 In Dr. H's experiments the animals appear in general to have survived the 

 application of the poison longer than in Mr. Brodie's, though they were 

 sooner and more violently affected by it; laborious respiration being in most in- 

 stances produced, with violent spasms of the pectoral and abdominal muscles, 

 and in some instances a slight effect on the brain, indicated by drowsiness 

 and giddiness. But these apparently contradictory effects are explained by 

 the circumstances under which the two series of experiments were respectively 

 made. In Mr. Brodie's mode of applying the poison, a greater quantity must 

 have been exposed to absorption by the system, than in Dr. Horsfield's; whilst 

 on the other hand the antshar employed by Mr. B., had, in all probability, been 

 preserved for many years in a dried state, in this country, and would conse- 

 quently be taken up by the system with less rapidity, and in a less active form, 

 than the fresh and recently fluid substance used by Dr. Horsfield. The condition 

 of the poisoned wound, as described by Dr. H. in two or three cases only, 

 appears to confirm Mr. Brodie's statement, founded on experiments made with 



