928 SIR THOMAS R. FRASER ON THE 



From information derived from the tribesmen, arrows poisoned with croton are 

 preferred in warfare, because, in their experience, death from aconite arrows can 

 generally be prevented by merely washing the poison out of the wound with water ; 

 whereas croton arrow wounds, even if so treated, cause local effects which are likely 

 to result in death by secondary septic poisoning. 



Some of the facts stated in Table XIII appear to support this preference and 

 belief, as they show that if even so minute a quantity as O'OOl grm. (^-grain) 

 of croton arrow-poison remain in a wound in a mammal, decided local inflamma- 

 tion will be produced, while 0'02 grm. (^-grain) is capable of causing severe and 

 protracted local inflammation. Assuming from the data that have been obtained 

 that the poison of one of these arrows weighs about one gramme, the former quantity 

 represents only the one-thousandth part and the latter the fiftieth part of the poison 

 that would be inserted into the body by a croton-poisoned arrow. Confirming the 

 capability of minute quantities of this arrow-poison to produce severe local effects, is 

 the custom of the Abors to use the same arrows over and over again without 

 renewing the poison. 



Apart from the question of the toxicity of the Abor and Mishmi poisoned arrows, 

 the results obtained are also of interest in showing : — (a) that the aconite arrow- 

 poisons cause a paralysing effect on respiration which greatly exceeds that on the 

 heart, thus indicating the existence in them of a larger quantity of pseudo-aconitinc 

 than of aconitine, and, therefore, the preparation of these poisons from one or more 

 of these species of aconite in which a preponderance of the former alkaloid exists ; 

 and (h) that while the croton arrow-poisons are relatively innocuous to warm-blooded 

 animals and, therefore, presumably to man, they are extremely toxic to such cold- 

 blooded animals as frogs, a peculiarity which they share with the seeds and oil of 

 Croton Tiglium. 



Summary. 



1. The active ingredient of the poison of the Abor and Mishmi poisoned arrows 

 is, in some of them, aconite, and, in others, croton oil. The former, apparently, is 

 generally used by the Mishmis, and the latter by the Abors. 



2. Although sufficient botanical materials have not been obtained to identify the 

 species of aconite, the nature of the pharmacological action suggests that the species 

 is one containing relatively more pseudo-aconitine than aconitine and, therefore, 

 more resembling Aconitum ferox and A. heteroj)hylloides than A. Naj^ellu.s. 



:;. The arrow-poisons containing aconite were found to be much more lethal in 

 warm-blooded animals than those containing croton ; but the aconite-poisoned arrows 

 that were; examined carried usually too little aconite for a single arrow to produce 

 death in man, even if the whole of the poison should be quickly absorbed. 



4. The arrow-poisons containing croton, on the other hand, were found to be 

 incapable of producing death in warm-blooded animals by the absorption of the 



