VRTICACBJB. 351 



by GraliamV— '*A branch is cut corresponding to tbe length and 

 diameter of the sack wanted^ soaked a little, and then beaten 

 with clubs till the fibre separates from the wood* This done, the 

 sack formed of the bark is turned inside out, and pulled do\vn, 

 until the wood is saWed off, with the exception of a small piece 

 left to form the bottom of the sack, which is carefully left un- 

 touched/' 



Brandis remarks (/. c-, p. 427) : — ^^Another species of the 

 same genus {Myah seik^ Bufm.) is found in the dense evergreen 

 forests of the Thoungyeen Yalley. In Tenasserim the juice is 

 used by the Karens to poison arrows, but the poison does not seem 

 f^qual in its effects to that of the famous Upas tree of the Indian 

 Archipelago/' Mason refers the Pegu Upas to A. ovalifoUay 

 a very large timber tree scattered in the forests from Mergui to 

 Toungoo. The milky juice is intensely bitter, and when 

 swallowed produces sore-throat. Arrows that have been smeared 

 with it and hung exposed to the air, lose their power to pro- 

 duce death, and there is said to be a difference in the virulence 

 of the poison at different times of the year. Nothing more 

 seems to be known of the tree which yields the Karen arrow 

 poison, but it is very probably referable to A. toxicaria, and 

 Gamble [Mantial of Indian TimberSj p. 332) refers the Burmese 

 name J/ya/i seik to that species. {Archives de Physiologie^ 2,1891 ; 

 Keiv Bulletin, 50,1891.) 



In 1891, MM. E. Boinet and E. Hedon examined the arrow 

 poison used by the Muongs of Tonkin. They found the quan- 

 tity of the poison on each bamboo arrow to be about half a gram 

 of a brownish substance soluble in water. Three drops of a 

 solution of 0'50 gram of the poison in 10 grams of water placed 

 upon a frog's heart arrested the pulsations in seven minutes 

 and a subcutaneous injection of one centigram of the poison 

 proved fatal to a guinea pig. From twenty experiments it 

 was found that one centigram per kilo body-weight was rapidly 

 fatal to the animals experimented upon. 



The authors arrive at the following conclusions : 



Xd. — That the poison has no appreciable effect upon the 



nervo- muscular or central nervous system. 



