128 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



depend on strychnine. Il affects the brain, producing fainting, insensi- 

 bility, and paralysis; while strychnine acts upon the spinal marrow, pro- 

 ducing convulsions but leaving the consciousness intact. 



When injected into the veins, even in the minutest quantity, it kills 

 in a lew seconds, while a much larger quantity of" strychnine is required 

 to cause death when thus administered. 



Mr. Charles Waterton, in his Wanderings in South America, states 

 that in addition to the woorara vine, the natives emplo}' in its compo- 

 sition the black and I'ed ant and the fangs of serpents, w^hich, he adds, 

 they invariably extract and preserve whenever occasion is presented. 

 From a chemical analysis of this substance which I had made, 

 though not completed, but which has revealed formic acid and a pro- 

 tean compound among its constituents, I am enabled to state with great' 

 certainty that a.iimal substances enter to a certain extent at least into 

 its composition. 



Humboldt, in his voyage to the equinoctial regions of South America, 

 states that Indians, who had been wounded by poisoned arrows, de- 

 scribed to him the effects as identical with those of the bite of serpents. 

 These cffiscts, as noticed in experiments on animals and birds, seem 

 to me to bear the closest analogy with those of the venom of serpents, 

 if they are not identical. 



The fact that the woorara is, like the poison of serpents, innocuous 

 when swallowed, strongly militates against the opinion that it is strych- 

 nine, or, indeed, any vegetable alkaloid. As usually metwdth, the kind 

 which is brought Irom South America is contained in small gourds, over 

 the internal surface of which it is spread. On being detached it pre- 

 sents a dark color, has a resinous tractare, a bitter taste, is readily 

 mixed with water, but imperfectly dissolved by it. Its appearance is 

 the same when mixed with alcohol ; but both these fluids dissolve the 

 active principle of it. The solution is acid. If the quantity of water 

 used be small, the mixture has a ropy, tenacious consistence. The solu- 

 tion is coagulated by the nitrate of silver, and by the solution of iodine 

 and iodide of potash in distilled water, and, when treated w'ith the latter 

 solution, neither the Dart coagulated nor ihe fluid expressed from it re- 

 tarns Its poisonous quality. It does not effervesce with acids. Its 

 aqueous solution is not coagulated by heat, and boiling does not impair 

 its activity. 



The manner in which poisonous substances act in producing their 

 effects has long been regarded as one of the most difficult subjects in 

 the wide range of nature. So long as the doctrines of astrology pre- 

 vailed, they were supposed to derive their properties from the malign 

 influence of the stars. 



Ambroise Pare, certainly one of the most enlightened men of his time, 

 was governed by the then prevailing doctrine w^hen he said: "Poisons 

 which act by a specific nature do not produce their effects l)ecause 

 they are hot, or cold, or dr}^ or of an excessive humidity, but because 

 they have that peculiar property of the celestial influences which is 

 contrary to human nature." 



In the infancy of toxicology the effect of nearly all poisons was refer- 

 red to sympathy. 



When they were applied to wounds, and the heart ceased to act, it 



