THE FLYING LEMUR 2"] 



birds roosted safely in its branches, and that even 

 the sap required boiling before it exerted its full 

 effect. The deadly valley of Java, famed for its fatal 

 results on animals, owed its lethal action, not to the 

 upas which grew in it, but to the exhalations of car- 

 bonic acid gas that escaped from the soil. Nay, 

 more, there can be little doubt that the upas poison 

 might, as a pharmaceutical preparation, be bene- 

 ficially employed in medicine ; witness the allied nux 

 vomica, which as the official Tinctura Nucis Votnict^ 

 or the equally well-known Liquor StrychnincB 

 Hydrochloratis is to be found in every chemist's 

 shop. The poet Darwin's lines : — 



Alone in silence on the blasted heath 

 Fell Upas stands, the hydra tree of death, 



only serve to perpetuate the absurd fable of Foersch. 

 To the flying lemur, then, science owes a debt, the 

 individuals martyred by Horsfield having together 

 with the other animals employed conclusively 

 demonstrated the physiological action of this famous 

 poison. 



Although the cobego has been known for a very 

 long time to Europeans, and is relatively abundant 

 near that great wild beast mart, Singapore, no living 

 specimen has yet been brought to England. Easily 

 taken in nets or captured by cutting down the tree, 

 this meek creature may be seized with the hand and 

 has never been known to bite ; it will eat plantains 



