272 VEGETABLE POISONS, 



was the same, more or less. Of all the extracts which he employed, 

 as for example those of henbane, night-shade, tobacco, &c. he found 

 none but that of white hellebore that seemed to raise some little 

 disorder in the animal economy. The essential oil of the lauro- 

 cerasus did not incommode the animals, into whose mass of blood 

 he conveyed it, instead of the poison. 



The 8th of June, with a lancet he made a very small incision be- 

 tween the ears of a cat, and with a pencil he put into it a drop of 

 the poison of ticunas mixed with that of lamas : in an iustant the 

 creature died between his hands. 



June the 9th, he put some of the same poison into small wounds, 

 which he made in different parts of insects, reptiles, fishes; and not 

 one of them died of it. 



The same day he made a wound that penetrated into the cavity 

 of the abdomen of a large cat, without hurting any of the contained 

 parts ; and, with a crotchet holding up the integuments, to keep 

 them from touching the abdominal viscera of this animal, that lay 

 on its back, he introduced the end of a funnel, and through it 

 poured iwto the cavity of the abdomen about half a dram of the 

 poison of lamas mixed with that of ticunas. By this management 

 he intended that the edges of the wound should not be wetted with 

 the poison, and that it should touch nothing but the surface of the 

 abdominal viscera. He made a suture of one stitch to join the lips 

 of the wound, and he kept the integuments constantly suspended, 

 to prevent their touching the poison : and in this he was certain 

 that he succeeded. At first the creature did not seem to suffer 

 much from this operation; but in an hour's time he died, with such 

 violent convulsions in his throat, that it was almost impossible for 

 him to breathe. 



June the 10th, he pricked with a lancet the left fore leg of a 

 large fat cat, and put in a drop of the poison of the ticunas. He 

 let this animal ruu loose about the room, without dressing the 

 wound. By the time he had made a turn round the room, he 

 seemed very restless and timorous; his legs failed him ; he lay flat 

 on his belly ; and the skin all over his body trembled considerably : 

 the hair of his tail stood up, and his paws were agitated with a 

 frightful tremor. All this while the animal made no noise : in fine, 

 his head fell all at once between his fore legs, and he died in four 

 minutes after the -insertion of the poison. 



