DE THOMAS E. FEASER ON STEOPHANTHUS HISPIDUS. 971 



ends of the feathers are 1-| inch above the bowstring notch of the arrow. The iron head 

 is inserted into a hollow in the cane, which is strengthened at the hollowed part by a 

 cord, consisting of a tendon lashed round it for 3 inches. The exposed portion of the 

 head is 7\ inches long, and the poison surrounds its straight portion, which is nearly 6 

 inches in length, in a layer of -|th of an inch in thickness. The barbed head is altogether 

 2\ inches long, and it is If inch wide at the broadest part, which is at the ends of the 

 barbs. The barbed head terminates in a rounded extremity, the barbs being sharply pointed , 

 and one lateral half of each surface of the head is concave, while the other is convex. 

 The poison is of a brownish colour, with grey spots ; it is smooth on the surface, has an 

 earthy fracture, no odour, but a strongly bitter taste. On microscopic examination it 

 was seen to consist of fragments of vegetable tissue, oil globules, numerous pieces of broken 

 hairs, and yellow granular particles. 



With solution of potash, the fluid, portion acquired a faint yellowish tinge, and with 

 10 per cent, sulphuric acid, at a temperature of 110° to 118° F., it became green in 

 colour, but soon the green colour was replaced by brown, and afterwards by a faint dirty 

 violet colour. 



The portion dissolved by water from ^th of a grain was administered by sub- 

 cutaneous injection to a frog weighing 335 grains. It produced in a short time the 

 ordinary phenomena of Strophantlms poisoning. The heart was exposed one hour and 

 thirty minutes after the administration, and found to be motionless and inexcitable by 

 stimulation, with the ventricle pale and small, and the auricles dark and distended. 

 Twenty minutes afterwards, reflex movements could yet be excited by feeble irritations 

 of the skin. 



Arrow H (see Plate II.) is one of a pair for which I am indebted to Mr J. K. 

 Tomory, M.B., who, for a short time in 1887, resided at the London Missionary Society's 

 Station in Central Africa. Dr Tomory informs me that the arrows were obtained from 

 one of the Manyuema tribes on the west side of Lake Tanganyika. They were said to 

 be used only for killing game, and the poison was believed to have an action like that of 

 strychnine, and to be derived from a large tree. 



The arrow is altogether 30^ inches in length. The shaft is made of a single piece of 

 fine-grained, reddish-brown light wood, 27 \ inches in length, and T 6 ff ths of an inch in 

 diameter near the head, but x^-ths of an inch in diameter near the bowstring end. The 

 feathering commences at If inch from the notch, and extends up the shaft for If inch. 

 It is very elaborate, consisting of fifteen separate feathers placed parallel to each other, 

 and securely lashed to the shaft at each end. The arrow-head is inserted into a hollow 

 in the shaft, so that almost no portion of its straight stem projects beyond the wooden 

 shaft, the base of the expanded barbed head being, therefore, almost in contact with the 

 end of the wooden shaft. The end of the shaft into which the head is inserted is 

 strengthened by a vegetable thong (apparently consisting of a rush) lashed round it for a 

 distance of 4| inches. The barbed head is 3 inches long and If inch wide at its broadest 

 part ; it is of a general oval acuminate shape, and is provided with a sharp spike-like 



VOL. XXXV. PART IV. (NO. 21). 7 I 



