POISONS FROM INOBGANIC SOURCES 2B3 



prepared for the pipe are mixed with the bile of the 

 tree-snake (Dryopliis prasinus) and of the common toad 

 (Bufo melanostictus). The Kelantan antidote for 

 poisoning by fotas is one that is hardly likely to be at 

 hand hi an emergency. It is to take the helmet of the 

 sohd-billed hombill, the tusk of an elephant, the bones 

 of the dugong, and rub them down with the root of the 

 white-flowered variety of the shoe flower (Hibiscus 

 rosa-sinensis, Linn. — Malvaceae). 



Other Uses,— Cyanide of potassium is used in 

 plating and gilding brass and silver in Kota Bharu. 

 In days gone by it was used with nitric acid by Kelantan 

 coiners when making counterfeit coin from brass, copper, 

 and zinc. 



MERCURY 



The sale of the veiy poisonous salts of mercury, such 

 as the perchloride, is now restricted, and, though it is 

 occasionally prescribed by Chinese quacks in over-doses, 

 corrosive sublimate does not appear to be used as a 

 homicidal poison by Malays. Mercuric sulphide (Cin- 

 nabar) may be bought as vermilion, but the only way 

 in which mercury appears to be used as a poison by 

 Malays is in its metallic form in combination with dry 

 datura seeds, opium prepared for smoking, and white 

 arsenic. These are carefully ground down in a mortar, 



POUNDED GLASS 



Malay poisoners are said seldom to employ crushed 

 glass alone, but to use it always in combination with 

 well-known vegetable irritants such as bamboo hairs. 

 Glass is not likely to cause many symptoms if given 

 alone, unless perhaps in the form of fine splmters, 

 because in all probability it is quickly enveloped in an 

 excess of mucus caused by mechanical irritation of the 



