216 MALAY POISONS AND CHARM CURES 



minutes, 46 after forty-five minutes, and in ninety-nine 

 minutes they had ceased* Exposure to the poison for 

 a while may be followed by death although the fish is 

 transferred to fresh water. In frogs to which the 

 poison is given by injeclion the heart is found gorged at 

 apparent death, though a beat may be ehcited by 

 stimulation ; there is also some slight response of nerve 

 and muscle to direct stimulation, but the spinal cord 

 is paralysed (Eef. 7). Professor Argyll Campbell, 

 experimenting in Singapore with an extract of tuba 

 prepared in the same way as Malay fishermen use it, 

 found that fish of about 50 gi*ammes weight were killed 

 by solutions as weak as 1 in 100,000 : the fresh-w*ater 

 fish Ophiocephalus gacha, Buch., Ham. (mm-rel), were 

 used in these experiments. It seemed higlily probable 

 that death was due to asphyxia, from the post-mortem 

 examinations of these small fishes (Ref. B). 



The white sap of tuba (D. eUiptica) has been shown to 

 be an emulsion with no tendency towards coagulation 

 and little, if any, loss of toxic action on boiling for a 

 short period. Campbell says that the watery extract is 

 faintly acid in reaction, and that it is not antiseptic. 



Other Uses of Tuba, — The sap of derris combined 

 with that of the upas tree is used in Borneo as one of the 

 ingredients of the Kayan dart and arrow poison for 

 hunting. A similar use of the sap by the pagan races 

 of the Malay Peninsula was reported by Newbold in 

 1839, and is mentioned under section The Upas 

 Tree. As a Malay poison tuba is sometimes put 

 into wells with criminal intent ; but death as a result 

 of its use so administered to human beings seems 

 to be rare among Malays, probably because it would be 

 necessary to employ large quantities of the root ; 

 moreover, a strong enough emulsion would be detected 

 by its milky appearance. It is said, however, in 



