ACCOUNT OF THE UPAS TREE. 
laceration is considerable, the hemorrhage 
‘that follows frequently carries away the 
virus, which it gradually dissolves, and 
E weakens or totally destroys its 
ʻe 
" "Tue Javanese state that sea-salt, taken 
in large quantities, is an antidote to this 
|» poison; but my own experiments, as well 
'as the subsequent ones made by i 
elille, 
seem to prove that this remedy is almost 
entirely, if not quite, inefficient, and only 
increases the sufferings of the victim. 
“ I noticed myself, and M. Delille has 
confirmed this observation, that the liquid 
poison, introduced into a wound, is much 
less virulent than when it has dried upon 
the instrument which inflicts the incision. 
Probably the fluid state causes it to mix 
readily, and to be carried away by the 
blood which flows out; whereas, in the 
other case, it is gradually absorbed while 
it dissolves. In the serous cavities and the 
digestive organs absorption is quickly ef- 
fected, though the Upas may be mingled 
with a large quantity of water, or mixed as 
a liquid in foo 
“T proceed to describe the Upas Antiar 
Tree. It is monecious, and belongs to a 
new genus, which I have called Antiaris 
toxicaria ; it is very lofty, and I invariably 
found it growing in fertile spots, surround- 
ed by a profusion of vegetables, which 
-Seemed to be entirely uninjured by its 
oy eo E 
| proximity. 
The trunk is straight, and fur- 
nished with excrescences at the base like 
that of Canarium commune. Its bark is 
whitish and smooth, and the wood white ; 
the leaves fall off before the blossoms ap- 
pear, and do not shoot again till the male 
flowers are over, and the fecundation of 
the germen is effected : they are oval, co- 
riaceous, generally crisped, pale green, and 
of a dry consistency, rough to the touch, 
and covered with little short and harsh 
The foliage of the very young 
itis of Antiaris is different from that of 
the full-grown trees; each leaf is about 
six inches in length, almost Sessile, slightly 
= Spathulate in shape, a little toothed at the 
i. sie and less harsh than in the old in- 
The juice of the tree is very 
ns and of a bitter flavour ; that which 
815 
exudes from the young branches is white, 
while what flows from the trunk is yellow- 
ish, and abundantly follows any incision 
made in the bark. 
‘“ The vapours of this juice, like those 
which are developed by several Shumachs 
and Eughorbias, and the American Man- 
chineel, are dangerous, and particularly so 
to some persons, whose skin or constitution 
is peculiarly apt to absorb these emana- 
tions, while others are not affected by them, 
as was proved by the following event :— 
“The tree which afforded the specimens 
of the Upas poison and of the inflorescence 
which I brought home, was more than 100 
feet high, with a trunk about 18 feet in 
circumference near the base. A Javanese 
I commissioned to bring me down 
some flowering branches of this tree, was 
obliged to make notches in it to enable him 
to climb ; but he had hardly got up so high 
as 25 feet from the ground, when he proved 
ill, and was compelled to descend. He be- 
an 
days, suffering with vertigo, nausea, and 
vomiting; while another Javanese, who 
climbed to the very top and brought what 
wanted, was in no way incommoded. 
Having afterwards caused one of these 
trees, which was four feet in circumference, 
to be felled, I walked among its broki 
‘branches, and my face and h were 
sprinkled with the gum-resin which drop- 
ped upon me, and I was not at all affected ; 
it is true that I took the precaution of 
washing myself immediately. The vicinity 
of the Antiar is not injurious to animals; 
I have seen lizards and insects upon its 
trunk, and birds perched upon the 
branches."! 
1 Not 25 &n 4h 141 
the Fi. 
** Fierce in paray silence on the ehta hais 
Fell Upas sits, the hydra-tree of death. 
Lo! from one root, the enyenomed soil rre 
A thousand vegetative serpents grow 
onster spre vada 
s far-diverging heads ; 
ohe trank entvinta s piei form 
Looks o'er th in the storih. 
Steeped in fell poison, as Ws sharp teeth part, 
Or peon the lion, as he stalks 
Or strew, as marshall’d hosts contend in vain, 
With ‘dix skeletons the whitened plain.” 
