ASIA 



185 



The earlier travellers in Malaya gave wonderful accounts of the 

 upas-tree and its action, which were purely imaginary. Delisle 

 and Magendie appear to have been the first to make experiments 

 with the poison in 1810, and they were followed by Brodie in 1811, 

 who showed that the heart-beats became weak and irregular before 

 respiration or the mental -faculties were impaired. 



There appears to have arisen a confusion between the juice of 

 A. toxicaria and Strychnos tieute, which explains the finding by 

 Hedbon and Welting of strychnine in upas antiar. Pelletier and 

 Cayentou, the discoverers of quinine, studied the chemistry of the 

 poison, and in 1838 Mulder isolated the active principle as a crystal- 

 line body, which he called antiarin, which in 1868 Deirij and Ludwig 

 showed to be a glucoside, 



Kiliani in 1896 investigated antiarin, and found its formula to 

 be CgwH^gOiQ. The physiological action of the poison has been 

 investigated by a large number of observers, notably by Hedbon. 

 Kiliani, and Seligmann, the last-named observer giving a most 

 excellent account of ipoh as used by the Kenyahs of the Baram 

 district of Sarawak. 



The poison is prepared from the inspissated juice of the tree, 

 and is either used alone or is mixed with 5. tieute, snakes' heads, 

 or other substances. The whole concoction is made into a paste 

 with water, and applied to the heads of the arrows, which are then 

 dried before a slow fire. 



The poison acts on the ventricles of the heart, behaving like 

 digitalis, and, in addition, causes paralysis of the cerebral nervous 

 system and passing clonic spasms of the voluntary muscles. 



Croton tiglium. — Fraser considers that this is one of the Abors' 

 arrow-poison, while the other is probably aconite, possible A. ferox 

 and A. heterophyllum. 



The Strychnos Arrow-Poisons. — Strychnos tieute Leschenault is 

 the upas tieute of Borneo, 5. wallichiana Bentham is the ipoh 

 aker, and S. maingayi the aker lampong of the natives of Malacca. 



The poisons obtained from these plants are said to contain 

 strychnine and curari. The symptoms are said to be paralysis of 

 the muscles, abolition of the reflexes, and stoppage of the heart 

 and respiration. The urine contains a substance which reduces 

 Fehling's solution. 



Manbhum Arrow -Poisons —Anderson thinks that these poisons 

 may possibly be manufactured in the following ways : — • 



1. By dipping the arrow-heads into rotten fish or meat, or into 

 the highly decomposed human body, or into animal secretions 

 equally decomposed. 



2. By coating them with nux vomica and sulphide of arsenic. 



3. By coating them with snake venom. 



4. By dipping them in mud, so that they acquire the organism 

 of tetanus, 



Less important Asian arrow-poisons are : — Guatteria veneficum Mart, Cocculus 

 toxiferus Mart, C. amazonum Mart, which are also used in India as arrow- 

 poisons, the active principle being curari. 



