FISH POISONING AND POISONS.— HAMLYN-HABRIS AND SMITH. 21 



Relative to its use Rev. N. Iley states: ''This fisli-poison is used only in 

 salt or brackish water in conjunction with plentiful supplies of green-ants' nests 

 {(Ecophylla smaragdina. Fab.), which are calculated to tempt fish to the surface 

 and. when they are stupefied, they are more easily caught." The vine is prepared 

 by beating out and coiling in lengths about staves, the beating together of which 

 under water causes the dissemination of the poison. 



Experimental results demonstrate the great etfectivity of the prepared 

 plant ; fisli are rapidly paralysed and killed. The ether extract infused in water 

 proved rapidly fatal to fish. The association of toxic property with ether-soluble 

 resins suggests the affinity of the plant with the Leguminosa^, and the identity 

 with a species of Derris is rendered certain by the blood-red colouration given 

 hy the extracted resin with concentrated sulphuric acid containing a trace of 

 ferric chloride. 



]\IANGROVE, from Normanton, Q. (unidentified). 



The bark, which the natives strip from the trees, is said to cause fish to 

 sicken quickly. Botanical identification has been impracticable, but identity 

 with the Swamp INIangrove, Barringtonia speciosa, is suggested. 



BARK OF ROOT (unidentified). 



]\Ir. J. L. Bramford, of Oaklands via Cairns, the donor, states that the 

 material is placed in waterholes overnight and fish are found dead on the surface 

 next morning. The natives of the district also employ it as a stimulating or 

 perhaps sedative medicine, and Mr. Bramford is of the opinion that its use 

 accounts for the death of many small children, the infants pining away when 

 the opiate (?) is indulged in by the mothers, who are with difficulty induced to 

 abandon the habit. 



Test fish placed in infusions of the material exhibited preliminary 

 excitation, stupefaction, and finall.y death after long intervals. A slow but 

 effective poison. An infusion of the alcoholic extract is similarly effective, but 

 the nature of the active principle has not been determined. 



A BARK (unidentified) from Oaklands via Cairns, Q. 



The material is used similarh' to the preceding ''Bark of root," and 

 with identical results. It would appear from test experiments to be in equal 

 concentrations somewhat more potent, and the active principle is alcohol-soluble, 

 but has not been further characterised. 



AN UNIDENTIFIED SPECIMEN 



From Dorothy Creek, Katheriue River, Northern Territory (G. F. Hill, 



Port Darwin). 



A portion of shrub reputed to be used for fish-poisoning purposes on the 

 Katherine River did not lend itself to botanical identification. 



Mr. R. H. Teck-Brook (The ]\Iine), to whom we are indebted for specimens, 

 supplies the following information: — •" It appears to grow only in the neigh- 

 bourhood but not in the immediate vicinity of water ; that is to say it grows, as 

 far as I can see, only on the tops of rocky hills, but in the adjoining valleys there 

 is M'ater containing fish — at least the large holes in Dorothy Creek contain fish. 



