POISONS OF VEGETABLE OBIGIN 217 



Kelantan that many Malay girls have lost their lives 

 by uterine haemorrhage through drinking an infusion as 

 an abortifacient. According to Greshoff, drinking the 

 poison produces vomiting, dizziness, and death. In 

 pregnant women abortion would appear to be due to 

 the asphyxia produced by the poison and uterine 

 haBmorrhage to dilatation of the blood vessels (A, 

 Campbell), Brooke says (Ref. 1) that tuba root itself 

 is used to procure abortion by insertion and retention 

 in the vagina, which causes metritis. He also remarks 

 that " decoctions have been occasionally used criminally 

 and for suicide, but as large quantities are required, it 

 is seldom used." It is said that Dayak girls employ 

 tuba as a means to commit suicide. Acute cases of 

 poisoning are characterised by fixation of the jaws. In 

 Sarawak native methods of treatment consist in the 

 administration of sugar and immersion of the patient in 

 cold water. 



Many years ago Oxley found that a decoction made of 

 the roots of derris was effective in destroying an insect 

 infesting the leaves of the nutmeg tree in the Straits 

 Settlements. The watery extract used by Chinese for 

 killing insects, to which reference has already been 

 made, is very effective, especially for spraying pepper 

 vines and other cultivated spices. Ridley praises it as 

 an insecticide in bis book on " Spices," and says : " the 

 decoction is poisonous to human beings, but only w^hen 

 taken in large quantities, and the risk from it in the 

 case of our spice plants is infinitesimal " (Ref. 21). 



Derris has now been in use for many years as an 

 ingredient of a proprietary insecticide for horticulture. 

 Recently (1919) its value in this respect has been 

 investigated by Mclndoo, Sievers and Abbott (Ref. 16) ; 

 they found that derris acted both by contact and as a 

 stomach poison, but that it had no value as a fumigant. 



