152 fHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1751. 



a tour round the stable, in which he was, without seeming to be in any pain. 

 Soon afterwards he fell on his side, and died in less than 5 minutes, having his 

 throat squeezed, as if he had been strangled. 



M. le Chevalier de Grossee had an eagle, which he had kept a good while in 

 his court-yard, and intended to make a present of it to M. de Reaumur, to adorn 

 his cabinet, but wanted to know how to put it to death without damaging the 

 feathers. M. de Reaumur sent him the same arrow above-described, which had 

 been fresh dipped in the poison ; it was struck into the wing of this large bird, 

 which dropped down dead in an instant. 



Such are the chief experiments, which M. H. made with the poison of ticunas 

 and lamas : and the following are the results of his observations. 1 . In almost 

 all the animals, which he killed with the poison of ticunas and lamas, he observed, 

 that in general they seemed to feel little or no pain before dying, by the action 

 of this poison ; 1, That before they die, these animals are seized with a sudden 

 and almost universal palsy , 3, Though the colour of the blood seemed to be al- 

 tered in certain animals, yet we ought not to draw any inference from thence ; 

 because in many others the blood had undergone no sort of alteration, either in 

 colour or consistence. 4. That all the muscles are so vastly contracted in the ani- 

 mals thus poisoned, that there is not a drop of blood to be found in them, whatever 

 way you cut into them. These muscles are clammy to the touch, and seem to ap- 

 proach the condition of flesh beginning to be tainted, which feels clammy ; 5, That 

 he did not know a more certain rule for determining that an animal died by the 

 energy of this poison, than this state of the flesh which feels clammy immediately 

 after death : but a person must have handled it more than once, if he would avoid 

 being mistaken ; 6, That the whole mass of blood, during the action of the poison, 

 is carried in abundance into the liver and lungs. 7. That neither sugar nor sea- 

 salt ought to be regarded as a specific antidote ; because the poison operates so 

 quick, that it does not allow time for these drugs to act, so as to prevent death. 

 He had found nothing but red-hot iron applied in time, that cures with sufiicient 

 certainty ; 8, That the more the animal is of a lively and sanguine constitution, 

 the more speedily and forcibly the poison acts ; Q, The lustier and fatter the 

 animal is, the more poison and time also are required for producing the expected 

 effects. 



He remarks, that the poison must be dried on the instrument, before it be 

 struck into the animal, which we intend to kill: for if it be liquid, it remains on 

 the outside of the wound, while the instrument penetrates into the flesh : in 

 which case, either the animal dies not at all, or at least with great difficulty : as 

 it happened with regard to a wolf, which did not die, though the arrow above- 

 mentioned was stuck into one of his thighs ; because the poison, which it re- 



