180 MALAY POISONS AND CHABM CURES 



by L. Wray, jun. : WhWe unloading and carrying the 

 baggage over the rocks, a poisoned blowpipe dart fell 

 out of a quiver and stuck in the upper part of one of the 

 men*s feet. It was at once pulled out, and a Semang 

 squeezed the wound to get out as much blood as possible, 

 then tied a tight hgature round his leg, and put lime 

 juice into the wound. The man complained of great 

 pain io the foot, cramps in the stomach, and vomited, 

 but these symptoms soon passed off. The point only 

 went into the foot about ^ inch and the dart was 

 instantly pulled out. The Semangs said that, had it 

 gone deep into the fleshy part of the body, it would 

 have caused death." 



Nature of Upas Tree Poison.— Although the 

 powerful poison contained in the fresh sap of Antiaris 

 toxicaria may be harmless when taken by the mouth, 

 it is deadly when injected under the skin of human 

 beings, causing violent intestinal paralysis : cases of 

 accidental death have been recorded. The fresh sap 

 has the odour of sour bread dough, the consistency of 

 thin cream, and quickly decomposes. The active 

 principle of Antiaris toxicaria is antiarin, a glucoside 

 akin to strophanthin ; a large number of investigators 

 have been interested in it. The physiology of antiarin 

 has been studied by Hedbom, the chemistry by Killani ; 

 while Sehgmann, working with material obtained from 

 the Kenyah district of Borneo (Ref. 21), has given a 

 very excellent description of the symptoms of poisoning 

 by antiarin, An extract from his paper is given in the 

 British Medical Journal, Vol. I., p. 1129, for 1903. 

 When experimenting on frogs, '001 mg. of antiarin 

 produced clonic spasms of the muscles, paralysis, and 

 systohc arrest of the ventricles of the heart. Eapid 

 fall of blood pressure and convulsions (clonic spasm) 

 occurred, and paralysis was set up by the pure crystal- 



