1817.] On the Poison Tree of Java. 271 
arrow prepared of bamboo is a more fit instrument to introduce the 
oopas ; having once pierced the skin, it easily adheres to the parts 
it comes in contact with, on account of its inconsiderable weight. 
The natives of Macasser, Borneo, and the Eastern Islands, 
when they employ this poison, make use of an arrow of bamboo, 
to the end of which they attach a shark’s tooth, which they throw 
from a blow-pipe or sompit. 
The 15th and 16th experiments are comparative, they were 
made with the oopas from Bali and Borneo; by contrasting them 
with the first, second, ninth, and 17th experiments, it sufficiently 
appears how far the oopas of the different islands agrees in activity. 
It is probable that the oopas from Borneo, when fresh, may act 
more forcibly than tiiat of Java. 
If the simple or unprepared sap is mixed with the extract of 
tobacco or stramonium, (instead of the spices mentioned in the 
account of the preparation), it is rendered equally, perhaps more 
active,—See the third and fourth experiments. 
Even the pure juice unmixed and unprepared, appears to act 
with a force equal to that which has undergone the preparative 
process, according to the manner of the Javanese at Blambangan. 
See the fifth experiment made with the fresh juice of Banjoo- 
wangee, and the 10th experiment with the fresh juice collected at 
Goorrong, near Passooroowang. 
Birds are very differently affected by this poison; fowls have a 
peculiar capacity to resist its effects. In the 44th experiment a 
fowl died 24 hours after the wound, others have recovered after 
being partially affected. 
The sixth and seventh experiments shew the effects of the un- 
prepared juice on two birds of the genus ardea. 
The 18th and the succeeding experiments were made with the 
poison prepared from the tshettik. Its operation is far more violent 
and rapid than that of the antsha,, 2nd it affects the animal system 
in a different manner; while the antshar operates chiefly on the 
stomach and alimentary canal, the respiration and circulation, the 
tshettik is determined to the brain and nervous system. 
A relative comparison of the appearances ou dissection demon- 
strates in astriking manner the peculiar operation of each. 
The 18th, 19th, and 25th experiments give a general view of 
the effects of the tshettik on quadrupeds. 
After the previous symptoms of faintness, drowsiness, and slight 
convulsions, it acts by a sudden impulse, which, like a violent 
apoplexy, prostrates at once the whole nervous system. 
In the 18th and 19th experiments this sudden effect took place 
on the sixth minute after the wound, and in the 25th experiment 
on the seventh minute, the animals suddenly started, fell down 
head-foremost, and continued in convulsions till death ensued. 
This poison affects fowls ina much more violent manner than 
that of the antshar, as appears from the 20th and 21st experiments ; 
they are first affected by a heat and itching of the breast and wings, 
