URTICACE^E. 



exhalations of the tree. It is asserted that tumours, pustules attended 

 by intolerable itching, and severe inflammation of the eyes attack those 

 who fell the trees. Blume considers it to act chiefly upon the vascular 

 system, and he describes the symptoms attending its administration in 

 the following words : The poison of the Antjar acts differently upon dif- 

 ferent animals, which may be owing more to certain peculiarities of organis- 

 ation or to the chemical nature of their fluids, than to the quantity of 

 poison they absorb. Thus the more robust mammalia, such as the 

 os KarabouWy are killed more slowly than dogs ; and these resist the 

 action of the poison longer than apes, cats, bats, and some kinds of 

 birds even of the larger kinds which perish rapidly, while fowls, &c., 

 are little affected by it, and either recover or die after a much longer 

 time than any of the above-mentioned animals, even mammalia. The 

 peculiar nature of different kinds of animals will explain this in a great 

 degree; and renders the symptoms attending the operation of the 

 poison far from being always the same. Those observed in mammalia 

 are as follows : in a short time, only a few minutes after the animal 

 has been wounded with either the prepared or the crude poison, it 

 becomes anxious and restless, is attacked by frequent shiverings, and 

 expresses its pain by moanings and loud cries, while the intestines are 

 in the meanwhile emptied of their contents. This is followed by faint- 

 ness, panting, contraction of the extremities, a flow of mucous saliva 

 from the mouth, attempts at vomiting, violent spasmodic contractions 

 of the pectoral and abdominal muscles, and then a vomiting of a yellow 

 or whitish frothy matter occasionally mixed with faeces. At last breath- 

 ing becomes much interrupted, the debility of the muscles and the pain 

 reach their highest point, urine and other excrements are discharged 

 involuntarily, and in the midst of convulsions death ensues. Dissection 

 exhibits the following symptoms : Traces of inflammation are per- 

 ceptible where the poison has reached among the muscles, which appear 

 bloodshot. The skin and the muscles of many animals destroyed by 

 this poison, especially the pectoral muscles, tremble under the dissecting 

 knife. The colour of the muscles, especially at the extremities, is paler 

 than when healthy. A small quantity of serous fluid is found in the 

 cavity of the abdomen. More blood than usual is injected into the 

 vessels of the intestines, especially of the liver, and, if the poison has 

 been absorbed slowly, and not with sudden violence, of the stomach 

 also ; but the vessels of the latter are less distended with blood when 

 death has taken place among violent convulsions without previous 

 vomiting. In that case also the stomach is not so much distended with 

 gas as when the poison has been slow in its operation, nor is its 

 interior lining so much covered with a yellow frothy substance. But 

 it is principally in the pectoral cavity that a morbid appearance is 

 observable, the blood being congested in the lungs and all the larger 

 vessels, as the aorta, the vena cava, and the arteries and veins of the 

 lungs. The colour of the lungs is healthy; the blood of the aorta 

 and arteries is duly oxydated, and spirts out with violence when they 

 are punctured, congealing presently afterwards. The colour of the 

 blood of the veins is dull as usual. The brain exhibits no trace of the 

 poison, unless a slight congestion of blood in the dura mater is to be 

 ascribed to it. 



Notwithstanding its virulence the concrete juice has been used 

 medicinally: but even in minute doses it produces violent vomiting 

 and purging, and seems to be too dangerous to be employed except with 

 extreme caution. 



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