POISONED ARROWS OF THE ABOKS AND MISHMIS OF NORTH-EAST INDIA. 903 



The general symptoms closely resemble those produced by the poison of Captain 

 Macdonald's arrows, and are equally in accordance with those produced by aconite. 



It will be observed, further, that while for rats the minimum lethal dose of 

 Captain Macdonald's poison is 0"1 grm. per kilo, that of Sir Wyville Thomson's 

 poison is only 0'025 or 0'03 grm. per kilo, indicating twenty-five or thirty times' 

 greater potency ; whereas, on the other hand, for frogs the minimum lethal dose of 

 Captain Macdonald's poison is 0'15 grm. per kilo, and that of Sir Wyville Thomson's 

 is 0'2 grm. 



Frogs are thus shown to be more resistant to both poisons, and especially to that 

 of Sir Wyville Thomson, than are mammals — a difference which appears to me of 

 some significance as indicating not only that the poison of these arrows contains 

 aconite, but probably, also, as indicating the species of aconite, or at any rate that 

 the species is one which contains a preponderance of pseudo-aconitine over aconitine. 

 To this, however, further reference will be made (p. 909). 



(c) Poison of Colonel Bailey's Mishmi Poisoned Arrows. 



Two most interesting collections of poisoned arrows and related objects were 

 received by me a considerable time after all the other arrows and relative objects 

 had come into my possession and had been examined. As the experiments demon- 

 strated that the poison of these arrows consisted chiefly, if not solely, of aconite, 

 it is convenient to deal with them here and before the results of experiments pre- 

 viously made with the poison of the Abor arrows obtained from the Government of 

 India are described. 



One of these collections, as I have already noted, was given to me by Lieut. - 

 Colonel Bailey, R.E., since deceased. It had been procured in the Mishmi country 

 by his son, Captain F. M. Bailey, of the Indian Political Department, and well 

 known as a Thibetan and Mishmi explorer, with the co-operation of Mr W. G. 

 Ballantine, C.S.I. 



The collection consisted of seven poisoned arrows and one arrow without poison, 

 which well exhibits the thread or fine cord wound spirally along the shaft 

 immediately below the iron head, for the purposes of securing the arrow-head 

 on the shaft and of increasing the adhesion of the poison to it (Plate XCIX, fig. l). 

 The arrows will afterwards be described more fully (p. 91 1). They were contained 

 in a quiver consisting of a hollow bamboo cylinder 665 mm. (26^ inches) long and 

 185 mm. (7\ inches) in circumference, having a basket-work lid and an attached 

 sling 990 mm. (39 inches) long, made of a strip of cane. There is fastened along 

 the side of the quiver a basket-work receptacle, 345 mm. (13| inches) long, 

 provided with a slit opening near the middle (Plate XCVIII, fig. l). 



In this receptacle there were a spare sling, a piece of thin cord such as might be 

 used as the spiral support for the poison on the arrow-shaft, and two small tuberous 

 roots, 38 mm. (lj inch) and 25 mm. (l inch) long, respectively, and both 20 mm. 



