150 MALAY POISONS AND CHABM CUBES 



possible to Bay what it contained. The homor I con- 

 sulted thought it was wool from the cotton tree 

 compounded with powdered datura seeds, the heart 

 of the ibul palm, tobacco, and blood. 



Constituents of Ibul Nuts. — Collections of ibul 

 nuts from Ulu Kesial (Kelantan) were sent for investi- 

 gation to Dr. J. A. Gunn (Professor of Pharmacology 

 at Oxford) in 1914, and to Sir W. Willcox and W. G. 

 Walsh in 1920, Dr, Gunn kindly reports that they 

 contain such large quantities of fatty matter that if 

 plentiful enough they might have a commercial value. 

 He found that the alcoholic extract was innocuous in 

 considerable doses, but that an acid aqueous extract 

 was highly toxic; but the toxicity was destroyed by 

 heating this preparation. In rabbits the heart stopped 

 very suddenly in diastole, both in situ and when isolated ; 

 with fibrillation when quickly investigated. Unfortu- 

 nately the outbreak of war prevented closer examina- 

 tion. Webster, Walsh and Willcox kindly report that 

 no positive reaction for alkaloids was given with the 

 general reagents on trial with an ether-shake-out in 

 modified Stas method : much fat was present. An 

 extract tried on the heart showed slowing of the beat 

 by prolonging diastole and strengthened systole, thus 

 resembling vagus action, but without the weakening. 

 At the time of writing the investigation is not com- 

 pleted; but it is regarded as probable that the active 

 principle is of glueosidal nature, which is in accordance 

 with Gunn*s observation that heat destroyed the 

 activity of the acid extract. 



In October, 1913, pieces of a diied ibul nut were 

 enclosed in bits of fish and given as an experiment to a 

 lesser adjutant bird. This ungairily sto^E (Leptoptilus 

 javanicus), accustomed to fend for itself, took a fancy to 

 five in my compound, where it swallowed anything, but 



