312 
produce them. The savages of Surinam 
imbue their darts with the poisonous juice . 
of a large tree, but the very genus of this 
tree is unknown; the Ahouatgnuecu,! the 
Piana or Curara,| and the Woorara, 
which grows on the banks of the Ama- 
zon’s river, respectively serve the native 
of America for the same purpose; but no 
description has ever been given of these 
plants. 
“<M. de la Condamine, in his account of 
his journey, speaks somewhat in detail of 
the poison prepared by the Zicunas, into 
the composition of which, he assures us, 
that more than thirty kinds of roots and 
vegetables, especially several climbing 
plants, are made to enter, and which is 
extensively used upon the shores of the 
Amazon river; but he affords no informa- 
tion as to what any of these plants are. 
“The famous poison employed by the 
Indians of the Molucca Archipelago, and of 
the Islands of Sunda, known by the names 
of Ipo or Upas, (both signifying vegetable 
poison, in the native language,) has speci- 
ally excited the curiosity of Europeans, 
cause of the marvellous and exaggerated 
accounts with which the natives of those 
countries have delighted in ornamenting 
their narrations. These popular stories 
have been collected and confidently re- 
peated by travellers, whose excellent ob- 
_Servations and lengthened labours have 
entitled them to credit. The indefatigable 
umphius names the tree which yields the 
Jpo, Arbor Toxicaria. Me has repeated 
all that was told him by the aborigines and 
given an imperfect description and figure 
of the tree, from a branch and one of the 
fruits, which had been sent him. I have 
. every reason to believe, that he has been 
deceived, at least, as to the authenticity of 
the fruit, which certainly was not produced 
by the tree which yields the poison in 
—. “The Naturalists of Europe, unwilling to 
. give credence to the numerous fables pro- 
. mulgated on the subject, desired to ascer- 
tain, tly, the nature of these poisons ; 
1 See the Supplement of the Dictionary of Science, 
^ rod 
E Tu 
gece 
Macr 
ACCOUNT OF THE UPAS TREE. 
but so strict is the secresy preserved on - 
the subject by the natives, that the re- 
searches made at Java, and elsewhere, - 
roved fruitless, as they only refuted the . 
idle tales that had been spread, without 
eliciting any real facts. When I started 
for my voyage of discovery in Australia, - 
the learned and estimable Professor, M. 
de Jussieu, urged me, in case I should 
land at Java, to obtain all possible infor- 
mation on this point, and my own wishes 
being equally strong, and seconded by — 
fortunate circumstances, the perseverance 
with -whic pursued the subject was 
finally crowned with a success which en- 
ables me now to speak positively about it. 
* [ have obtained, not only the two kinds 
of poison or Upas, which are collected an 
prepared in Java; but those also of the 
Islands of Borneo, and Macassar, and have 
brought a large quantity of them to Europe, — — 
with which my friend, M. Delille, the Phy- 
sician and Botanist to the Egyptian expe- 
dition, and M. Magendie, have made many 
interesting experiments, displaying the ac- 
tivity and peculiar mode of operation of 
these poisons on the animal economy. 
'These experiments, performed with great 
dexterity and care, have formed the sub- 
ject of two memoirs, read at the Institute, 
and of a dissertation by M. Delille, pre- 
sented to, and adopted by, the Faculty ot 
Medicine, at Paris. 
* [ now proceed to give the history of — 
these poisons, with the manner of their 
preparation, and a description of the plants 
which afford them. 
S VILE 
n 
* [t was at Sumanap, in the Island of 3 
Madura, that I obtained the poison that is 
called Jpo in the Island of Borneo. A 5 
boat arriving from this country, had on 
aem. adem 
board one of those men who live in the ~~ 
interior of the mountains, and who are 
called Orang-daias: these people are 
easily known, because they all tattoo their 
whole Island, possess the secret of those 
pera 
Ex 
plants which furnish the Jpo, and the man- cn E 
ner of preparing it, and they carefully pre- - 
serve it rolled up in the leaves of the Palm 
