46ff Royal Society. 



plant. The bohan is a large tree, which this writer (i(Jii» 

 siders a new genus : the other plant, yielding an equally 

 powertul poison, is ol the woodbine genus. 'J'he vpas, or 

 poisonous juice, is extracled by an incision in the bark with 

 a knite, and carel'ully collected and preserved by the natives 

 to be used in their wars. As to its dilfusing noxious efflu- 

 via in the atmosphere, and destroying all vegetation around 

 it, the absurdity of these stories is best exposed by the 

 fact, that the climbing species requires the support of other 

 plants to attain its usual growth. Dr. Delille made several 

 experiments with the upas on dogs and cats. An incision 

 was made in the thigh of a dog, and eight grains of upas 

 dropped into it : shortly after the dog began to vomit, and 

 continued vomiting at intervals, till he became convulsed, 

 the muscles of his head greatly distorted, and he died in 

 20 minutes. Six grains were put into the thigh of another 

 dogi which also vomited first his undigested food, next a 

 white foam, and died contracted and convulsed in 15 mi- 

 nutes. — A cat was also treated in like manner; but she was 

 still sooner and more convulsed, and her nmscles con- 

 tracted : she continued leaping up for a few minutes, and 

 fell down dead. All these animals died crying and in great 

 agony. — After repeating a number of experiments on the 

 deleterious and prompt effects of this powerful poison 

 when applied externally ; the author gave a grain and a half 

 to a dog, which he took into his stomach, but it only pro- 

 duced a slight purging. To another four grains were given, 

 which in about four hours produced both vomiting and purg- 

 ing, and the dog died in the course of half a day. On examin- 

 ing the bodies of these animals after death, no very extra- 

 ordinary appearances were discovered; the ventricles of the 

 heart were full of blood, and some slight traces of inflam- 

 mation appeared in the stomach; but "the derangement 

 was not so great as might have been expected from such a 

 violent and sudden death. From this circumstance, the 

 author concluded that the absorbents had transmitted the 

 poison to the nerves of the stomach, and that this peculiar 

 vegetable poison acts exclusively on the nerves. 



*^* In the account we gave (in our last number) of 

 Mr. Macartney's paper on luminous animals (not insects 

 nierely) there were some mistakes. He stated that they 

 belong to several classes, as mollusca, insects, worms and 

 zoophytes*-— There is but one species of mollusca luminous, 

 the pholas dactylus. The medusie that were ranked by 

 Lmnaeus amongst mollusca are now placed more properly 

 with zoophytes. — Th$ medusa scintillans, one of the lu- 



mi nous 



