Mr Breton on the Vegetable Poison , fyc. 217 



motion to the speculum ; but, upon the whole, I think this ma- 

 chinery will be found greatly to abridge the labour and in- 

 crease the certainty of the process of working specula and lenses. 



Art. III. — Experiments with the Vegetable Poison with which 

 the Nagas * are stated to tip their Arrows. By P. Breton, 

 Esq. Surgeon Superintendant of the School of Native Doc- 

 tors, Calcutta. Communicated by George Swinton, 

 Esq. 



1827, June %4>th. — This substance, (which is soluble in water,) 

 softened with a few drops of spirits of wine, was on the point 

 of a lancet inserted in the inside of the thighs of two pigeons. 

 Vomiting two or three times, and three or four evacuations 

 (one or two of which were watery) occurred, general uneasi- 

 ness and languor were manifested, and they both died in a 

 convulsive fit of about two minutes duration, one in forty mi- 

 nutes, and the other in forty-two minutes after the insertion 

 of this poison. 



June 28th. — Fifteen minutes after 2 p. m. the poison was 

 in a similar manner inserted in the inside of both thighs of a 

 pigeon, and the effect was as follows : Nineteen minutes after 

 two, two motions in quick succession ; twenty-two minutes 

 after two, slight vomiting, and general uneasiness and languor 

 manifested ; thirty-four minutes after two, slight vomiting as 

 before ; thirty-six minutes after two again vomiting repeated, 

 and a copious watery evacuation, and the pigeon died in a 

 convulsive fit, which lasted about one minute and a half, at the 

 expiration of thirty-seven minutes after the insertion of the 

 poison. 



Nineteen minutes after 2 p.m. a second pigeon was in a 

 similar manner infected. Upwards of half an hour elapsed 

 without any symptom being apparent. It then couched, and 

 seemed a little drowsy. A few minutes afterwards it rose and 

 walked about for a few minutes on a table on which it was 

 placed, and again couched and remained upwards of an hour 

 without any other apparent symptom than languor. Giddi- 



* The hill tribes between Sylhet and Munnipore. 



