194 THE ISLAND OF JAVA. 
extraordinary power in some of their poisons. An English 
sailor at Madura was condeiTined, for some high crime, to 
suffer death by a poisoned dart. The executioner, who was 
the Prince himself, agreed to deliver up the culprit to the 
Dutch and English surgeons immediately after being struck, 
and allowed them also to name the spot where he should hit 
him. The fleshy part of the great toe was pointed out for 
this purpose, which was accordingly pierced by the dart of 
the Prince. Every preparation being made for immediate 
amputation, the toe was instantly taken off, notwithstanding 
Avhich a mortification ensued, and the man died. Admitting, 
however, the fact to have been as here stated, the climate 
and the general relaxation of the habit might also have 
operated, in conjunction with the poison, in producing this 
speedy dissolution. 
To this relaxed state of the body mav' certainly be attri- 
buted the fatality attending many disorders which in Europe 
are not considered to be dangerous. The prick of a piia or a 
needle will sometimes occasion a lock-jaw. The Dutch doc- 
tors are also of opinion, that certain cases of hydrophobia 
which have occurred, notwithstanding no instance of canine 
madness was ever known on the island, may be attributed 
to climate, and the state of the constitution as effected by it. 
The bite of the large Indian rat, commonly called the Ba7i' 
dicoof, is supposed to occasion hydrophobia and certain 
death ; an opinion which, I understand, is also entertained 
on the coast of Malabar. The bite of an enraged man is said 
to be as certain of producing hydrophobia as that of a mad 
dog, two cases of which had happened not long before our 
