april — sept. 1858.] Prison of the Upas Antiar. 103 



I may further add, that the muscles and the heart of frogs poisoned 

 by Urari (Woorari, Ourari) lose their irritability totally, and in a 

 short time, if Antiar is introduced into a wound some time after 

 the Urari. If we consider that, as I have shown (see Proceedings 

 of the Royal Society, 1856, p. 201,) the Urari only acts upon the 

 terminations of the nerves in the muscles, and does not effect the 

 irritability of the heart and muscles at all, we may conclude, that 

 a poison, which, as the Antiar, is capable of paralyzing the muscles 

 after the Urari, has really a direct action upon the muscular fibre. 

 'The results of my investigation into the effects of the Antiar upon 

 frogs, are therefore the following. 



1. The Antiar is a paralyzing poison. 



2. It acts in the first instance and with great rapidity (in 5 to 

 10 minutes) upon the heart, and stops its action. 



3. The consequences of this paralysis of the heart are the ces- 

 sation of the voluntary and reflex movements in the first and second 

 hour after the introduction of the poison. 



4. The Antiar paralyzes in the second place the voluntary 

 muscles. 



5. In the third place it causes the loss of excitability of the 

 great nervous trunks. 



6. The heart and muscles of frogs poisoned with Urari may be 

 paralyzed by Antiar. 



7. From all this it may be deduced, that the Antiar principally 

 acts upon the muscular fibre and causes paralysis of it. 



So much for this time. My experiments with the Antiar upon 

 warm-blooded animals have only begun, and I am not yet able to 

 draw any conclusion from them. As soon as this will be possible 

 I shall take the liberty to submit them to the Royal Society, toge- 

 ther with the results of my experiments with the Upas Tieute, 

 which poison I had also the good fortune to obtain through the 

 kindness of Sir Benjamin Brodie and Dr. Horsfield. With regard 

 to the Antiar I may further add, that experiments made indepen- 



Note. — This famous poison consists chiefly according to Schomburgk 

 of the Strychnos toxifera, — Ed. M. J. 



