252 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NA TURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol IX, 



says that " by boiling the nut ( the italics are mine, K.R.K.), an 

 oil is prepared, which, when undiluted, acts as a blister." The common 

 experience is that the process of boiling the nut is hardly necessary to 

 bring out the blistering property. The crude juice, even as it escapes 

 from the pericarp, rapidly produces a blister. In some constitutions 

 the blister appears after 24 or even 48 hours, and not unfrequently, 

 even a pustule. It is the crude juice that is generally used for 

 medicinal or criminal purposes. The process of boiling the nut 

 therefore, may be deemed superfluous. 



Mr. C. Duran reports in the Medical Times and Gazette (p. 519, 

 Vol. II, 1875), a case treated under the care of Dr. Frederick Taylor in 

 Guy's Hospital, London, for poisoning by the Indian marking-nut. 

 The symptoms are briefly as follow : — A European school-boy, aged 

 13, was admitted into Guy's Hospital on 18th May, 1874. He stated 

 that he had painted the figure of an anchor on his left arm with the 

 juice of the marking-nut nine days previous to admission into the hos- 

 pital. The seed was given to him by a soldier returning to England 

 from India. The juice u was not pricked in as in tattooing," but mere- 

 ly rubbed on. When the juice dried, it left a black stain which could 

 not be rubbed off. During the week it caused some smarting. A full 

 week after, the boy noticed that the painted arm was red, and that a 

 number of small pimples had appeared. In the night his face became 

 red and swollen, and the next day he went to the hospital. During 

 the first night of his admission into the hospital, he rested his arm, 

 which was covered with lint, on the abdomen and thighs. The follow- 

 ing morning both the abdomen and thighs were red. This shows how 

 long the acrid properties of the juice remain, and how indestructible 

 it is even when mixed with the serum of the blood for a whole week, 

 and how it affects adjacent parts by means of such serum even 

 when they are protected by a thick piece of lint. The boy suffered 

 from no constitutional disturbance. The redness of the affected parts 

 resembled that of erysipelas. Although it was the left forearm that 

 was painted over with an anchor, the back of the right hand and front 

 of the wrist " were covered with a few red spots, surmounted with 

 minute white pustules." The face also presented a similar inflamma- 

 tory condition ; " the redness and swelling affected both eyes (the left 



