PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 



Vol. II. 



New York, May, 1895. 



No. 5. 



AN HISTORICAL SKfcTCH OF POISONS. 



NEW 



By CHARLES E. PELLEW, E. M., BOT 



Demonstrator of Physics and Chemistry in the College of Physiciaus and Surgeons, New York, and Honorary (_, ; 

 Assistant in Chemistry in fhe School of Mines, Columbia College. 



QO far as we can tell, the first use of 

 poisons was for smearing arrow- 

 heads, and thereby increasing the effi- 

 ciency of man's early and primitive 

 weapons. The names Toxicology, in 

 fact, is derived from the Greek rd%or 

 (toxon), an arrow, and in all parts of the 

 world we still find barbarous races em- 

 ploying this device. The first poisons 

 used for this purpose were probably 

 from the poison glands of snakes ; then 

 followed the use of various vegetable 

 compouuds, infusions of the dangerous 

 leaves, roots and fruit met with in the 

 woods. Later came the use of stale 

 blood, or other decomposing animal mat- 

 ter, a practice probably first learned from 

 noticing that old and dirty arrowheads 

 produced more deadly wounds than clean 

 ones. 



These three varieties of poison are 

 made use of by savage races to this day. 

 The curare, or Indian arrow poison 

 from South America, is chiefly com- 

 posed of vegetable extracts, but in some 

 cases, at least, it contains material from 

 poisonous ants and from snakes. The 

 pigmies, met and described by Stanley 

 in Central Africa some few years ago, use 

 a most active arrow poison, made from 

 five different plants, and containing con- 

 siderable strychnine; and in Java th 

 natives still steep their arrows in the 

 dried juice of the deadly Upas tree, the 

 Strychnos Tieute. 



But more remarkable are the bacterial 

 and toxine arrow poisons. In the South 

 Pacific Islands the natives have for ages 

 been accustomed to dip their arrows in 

 the decomposing bodies of their enemies 



