POISONS FBOM INOBGANIC SOURCES 225 



either as a medicine, for damascening the blade of a kris, 

 or for killing rats. Legislation controlling the sale of 

 certain i>oi90os, including arsenic, was decreed by the 

 late Sultan, on the advice of his British Adviser, in 1913 : 

 consequently it has been impossible to buy it in the open 

 Kota Bharu market of late years. The poisonous dose 

 is very small. At a recent mm-der trial in Hereford 

 {Rex V. Armstrong, April, 1922) the fact became public 

 that sixty-six lethal doses of white arsenic (3J grains 

 to a dose) can be bought in England to-day for the sum 

 of one penny. At this rate enough to poison 3,000 

 people could be bought for one Straits dollar, i.e., at 

 25. 4(?. per lb. 



Arsenic used by Malays for Assassination. — 

 White arsenic is reputed to be one of the chief poisons 

 employed by Malays for killing or attempting to kill. 

 But it appears to be much less used in Malaya than in 

 India, where it is commonly used out of revenge with 

 murderous intent, also for poisoning cattle in order to 

 procm*e the liides. In Fjgypt also it is much used 

 to poison neighbours and their cattle. A conunon 

 device is to scoop out the central pith of a corn-cob 

 and fill up the resulting space with arsenic. The 

 alleged Kelantan practice of poisoning the Malay kris 

 with arsenic to make assassination doubly sure has 

 been referred to on p. 4. It cannot have been universal 

 among Malays. William Marsden, writing so long ago 

 as 1811 about the Sumatran kris, says : " The abomin- 

 able custom of poisoning them, though much talked of , 

 is rarely practised, I believe, in modern times. They 

 (Malays) are frequently seen rubbing the blades v/iih 

 hme-juice, wliich has been considered as a precaution 

 against danger of this kind, but it is rather for the 

 purpose of removing common stains, or of improving 

 the damasked appearance." In Kelantan, according 



