POISONED ARROWS OF THE ABORS AND MISHMIS OF NORTH-EAST INDIA. 915 



Table XV — continued. 



Date. 



Weight 



of 

 Animal. 



Dose 



per 



Kilo. 



Actual 

 Dose. 



Result. 



Notes. 



1912. 













Oct. 5 



20 



05 



o-ooi 



Death in from 

 24 to 37 hrs. 



On 2nd day some blood passed per ano. After 

 death, considerable serous effusion in thighs 

 and trunk of body ; surface below skin of 

 dorsum dark purple, with numerous luemor- 

 rhages, and a few haemorrhages at flanks, 

 upper part of thighs, front of abdomen and 

 thorax and floor of mouth. Stomach and 

 upper part of intestines contain blood, but 

 not the rectum. 



April 27 



32 



0-075 



0-0024 



Death in from 

 1 to 2 days. 



Moderate oedema. After death, appearances 

 much as above. A little urine was obtained 

 from the bladder, and found to contain albu- 

 men, but no blood. 



Oct. 5 



195 



o-i 



0-00195 



Death in less 

 than 18 hrs. 



No symptom observed. After death, muscles 

 and nerves respond to feeble galvanic stimuli ; 

 no reflex ; heart motionless, dark and large ; 

 haemorrhages under skin of back, none under 

 skin elsewhere. In cardiac two thirds of 

 stomach, a large gelatinous, red mass (about 

 0'5 c.c.) which gave the reactions of blood, 

 but no blood in small or large intestines.* 



This arrow-poison, accordingly, is in frogs more lethal than any of the arrow- 

 poisons whose toxicity is derived from aconite, as it is about forty times more lethal 

 than the poison of Sir Wyville Thomson's arrows, and twelve times as lethal as that 

 of Colonel Bailey's arrows. Generally, death is only slowly produced ; the animal 

 seems unaffected for several days, except that usually blood escapes per- ano, and that 

 latterly there is general feebleness. Until only a short time before death, there is no 

 diminution in the respiratory or cardiac movements or in afferent or efferent nerve 

 conductivity or reflex excitability. After death, congestion and haemorrhages are 

 found at and near the locality of injection, and sometimes at a considerable distance 

 from it ; but, above all, blood, it may be in considerable quantity, is found in the 

 alimentary canal from the stomach to the rectum, and, with large doses, even from 

 the mouth to the rectum, the greatest quantity being usually in the large intestine. 



As in the above experiments this arrow-poison had been injected in a locality 

 where only delicate structures interpose between it and the interior of the abdomen, 

 the haemorrhage into the alimentary canal might possibly, although not probably, 

 be due to mechanical imbibition of the poison. For the purpose of obtaining 

 information regarding this possibility, two series of experiments were made, in one 

 of which the arrow-poison was injected under the skin of a thigh and in the other 



* In several of these and of the subsequent experiments, the blood was recognised by spectroscopic as well as 

 chemical tests. 



