274 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. i, 1904. 
produced precisely the same effect as does the plant itself. 
When a very minute amount is placed upon the skin, it 
is gradually absorbed in the course of a day or so, and 
within certain limits the effect is proportional to the time 
of contact. In an experiment performed by the writer, 
the oil was applied to four places on the left wrist, and 
these were carefully guarded to prevent spreading. At 
the end of an hour one of the spots was thoroughly 
washed by successive applications of alcohol. In three 
hours the oil from a second was washed off in the same 
manner, and the others were cleansed three hours later. 
.There was little or no effect on the first; that on the 
second was more marked, but did not equal that produced 
on the last two, which was about the same in each. The 
spots were within an inch of each other, but remained 
wholly distinct, a fact which very clearly shows that the 
affection is not spread by the blood. Subsequent applica- 
tions of an alcoholic solution of sugar of lead gave 
speedy and permanent relief." 
The best remedy is a saturated solution of 50 or 75 per 
cent, proof alcohol with powdered sugar of lead. The 
most effective means of getting rid of the poison ivy is 
by uprooting the plants. This, of course, can only be 
practiced by persons not susceptible to the poison. The 
poison sumach, also called poison dogwood, poison elder, 
and poison ash, is a tree rather than a vine. It is not 
less dangerous than the more common poison ivy. 
Certain buckeyes— especially the red buckeye— are more 
or less poisonous; cattle sometimes are killed by eating 
the fruit of the red buckeye. The allied horse chestnut 
and Ohio buckeye are poisonous to some extent, while on 
the other hand some of the California Indians use the 
fruit of the California buckeye for food, after removing 
the poison by roasting and leaching. 
Two species of water hemlock— one found from the At- 
lantic to the Rocky Mountains, and the other in 
the central region and toward the Pacific Coast— are vio- 
lent poisons. They are sometimes eaten by cattle and 
sometimes by children, as they have a pleasant taste and 
an aromatic odor. The root and root stock are most 
violent poisons. 
The poison hemlock is an old world plant which has 
become naturalized in the United States. This is be- 
lieved to be the poison that Socrates drank, and so is 
historically very old. 
The black nightshade, known also as common night- 
shade, is an introduced weed which is generally dis- 
tributed in suitable locations. Cattle occasionally are 
killed by eating the plant, but comparatively few cases 
are fatal. 
A Collection of Antique Arms* 
A sportsman of this city, who has been a subscriber 
to Forest and Stream from its very beginning (and his 
subscription is now prepaid for more than a year), has 
a small collection of pistols and guns, notable rather 
for their mechanical peculiarities than for artistic or 
rich ornament. We have recently looked them over, and 
now present in an illustrated supplement page some pic- 
tures from photographs of a few that seem to us particu- 
larly worthy of note. 
No. 1 is a Japanese match lock pistol. The barrel is 
of iron, octagonal in shape, possibly cast iron, very 
thick, bore 0.40 inch, 1 inch outside at muzzle, 1.25 at 
breech, and 12^ inches long; total length of the pistol 
is 23 inches. The barrel is inlaid throughout its length 
with a tracery of very fine silver winding about like 
a vine, and the wooden stock is very finely finished and 
polished. The pan is a projection of the same metal as 
the barrel, and has a swinging brass cover, which is 
shown open in the photograph. The lock plate, springs, 
hammer and trigger are all of smooth brass. The ham- 
mer is shown at full cock in the photograph. In the end 
of it is a small piece of slow match or punk. The small 
knob, near the grip, is the trigger, and when it is pressed, 
the hammer, actuated by the brass spring on the outside 
of the lock plate, carries the slow match to the powder in 
the pan and ignites it, and the piece is discharged. There 
is no date upon it. Match locks are still used by some 
of the Chinese and Tibetans. 
No. 2 is a wheel lock pistol. The barrel is 18 inches 
long, and has a caliber of 0.45 inch or gauge 50. The 
entire length of the piece is 26 inches. The pan is at- 
tached to the lock plate; underneath it, and with its 
edge rising into the pan, is a wheel. This wheel is 
wound up by a key or crank, which is shown in place 
on the photograph, and which is removed as soon as the 
wheel is wound up. The hammer, or cock, carrying a 
piece of flint or of iron pyrites and acting under the force 
of a strong spring, presses the flint or pyrites against 
the edge of the wheel. When the trigger is pulled, a 
strong spring inside the lock plate causes the wheel to re- 
volve with great force and velocity, striking a shower 
of sparks from the pyrites into the powder in the pan, 
and the piece is discharged. Wheel locks are said ' to 
have been invented in Nuremburg in the year 1515, to 
supply the demand for poachers at night, because the 
carrying of lighted slow match for match locks disclosed 
their whereabouts to game keepers and guards. Wheel 
locks are frequently shown in illustrations of early 
Colonial and Canadian history. 
No. 3 is a horse pistol, very strongly built to stand 
rough usage. The barrel is 10% inches long, with a bore 
of 0.66 of an inch or 16 gauge. Length from butt to 
muzzle, 16 inches. It has an iron ramrod hung on a 
swivel to prevent its loss. It was used by cavalry. 
No. 4 is one of a pair of very finely finished duelling 
pistols made by Tatham & Egg, of London. ■ Its bore is 
0.63 or gauge 19. The barrel is 9 inches long, and from 
butt to muzzle it is 14 inches. 
No. 5 is a pistol which bears the Liege proof marks, 
though it was bought in Syria some years ago. The 
barrel is 7 inches long, and has bore of 0.68 of an inch, 
or 15 gauge. Length from butt to trigger, 6 inches, and 
from butt to muzzle, 15 inches. 
No. 6 is a very old Spanish pistol, of large bore. The 
works of the lock are all on the outside of the lock plate, 
and it has a belt hook to carry it upon belt or sash with- 
out a holster. The barrel is 4^ inches long, bore 0.73 of 
an inch or 12 gauge, and length over all, butt to muzzle, 
10 inches. 
No. 7 is a double-barreled flintlock pocket pistol made 
by Barbar, of London. It has but one hammer and one 
cock, or pan cover. There are two depressions in the 
pan to hold the priming powder, one for each barrel, one 
of which, for the left barrel, can be covered by a slide 
moved by a knob or projection, to be seen in the photo- 
graph. All the iron work, except the barrels, is deeply 
engraved in relief. The barrels, including chambers, are 
5 inches long, with bore of 0.45 of an inch. Butt to 
muzzle, xoy 2 inches. 
No. 8 is a -pocket pistol made by Rainkin of Paris. The 
barrels are placed "over and under" instead of side by 
side, as in No. 7. There is but one hammer and pan 
cover. The bottom of the pan is a cylinder which can 
be revolved by the handle fastened by a screw, which 
can be seen in the photograph. This cylinder has a small 
segment cut out of it, which carries the priming powder 
for the left barrel. When the cylinder is so turned as to 
keep the priming powder in its segment away from the 
sparks of the flint, the right barrel is fired by the ignition 
of the priming powder in the pan above its cylinder bot- 
tom, then by closing the pan, cocking, and turning the 
cylinder so as to expose the priming powder in its seg- 
ment to the sparks from the flint, the second barrel is 
fired. The barrels are 3 T /> inches long, bore 0.40 of an 
. inch, and total length 8 inches. 
No. 9 is a handsome and graceful officer's pistol, such 
as are frequently seen worn in belts and sashes in por- 
traits of officers of our navy in the time of the Revolu- 
tion and the War of 1812. The barrel, including cham- 
ber, is 5 inches long, with bore of 0.58 inch, or gauge 
23, and the total length from the butt to muzzle is io l / 2 
inches. The stock is inlaid with fine silver work, the 
butt plate is a grotesque masque in silver. 
Nos. 7, 8, and 9 are all breechloaders; that is, the 
barrels are unscrewed and taken off the breeches in or- 
der to load. The chambers in the breeches are then 
filled with powder, and the bullet, which is very slightly 
larger than the bore of the barrel, placed upon it, the 
barrel is then screwed on again. When fired, the bullet 
is compressed and passes through the barrel without any 
windage. 
No. 10 is a dainty little French pocket pistol, only 7 
inches long over all. The barrel is 3 inches long, with a 
bore of 0.23 of an inch. The trigger guard and other 
mountings are of silver, and the top of the barrel is in- 
laid with gold, and the stock with silver filagree. 
No. 11 is a brass pocket pistol with a bayonet. The 
bayonet folds under the barrel, the point of it catching in 
the trigger guard, which is movable. When the trigger 
guard is pressed the point is released and a spring causes 
the bayonet to fly into the position shown in the photo- 
graph, where it is "fixed" by a catch. It is bell-muzzled 
horizontally, but not vertically, the horizontal diameter 
at the muzzle being 1.10 inches and the vertical 0.70 
inch. Its length from butt to muzzle is S l / 2 inches, and 
from butt to point of bayonet, when fixed, 11^2 inches. 
It has the Liege proof marks. 
No. 12 is a blunderbuss. The barrel is of brass, 14 
inches long, having a bore of 0.77 inch, 10 gauge, ex- 
cept at the muzzle, when in a length of six inches it is 
enlarged to 1.1 inches, making a "bell-muzzle." The 
whole length of the piece is 26 inches. About a hundred 
years ago blunderbusses were much used for house pro- 
tection, as revolvers are nowadays, and hung over the 
fireplace in the kitchen of farmhouses. They are often 
seen in illustrations of English life; for instance, when 
a country gentleman is going in a carriage with his wife 
and daughter to visit a neighbor, his carriage is guarded 
by some half dozen servants on horseback, armed with 
blunderbusses. The load was a handful, more or less, of 
buckshot or slugs. This piece was made by Brander & 
Potts in 1804, and bears the Tower proof marks. 
No. 13 is the first breechloading musket used by the 
United States Army. It was made at the Harper's Ferry 
Arsenal under Hall's patent in 1838. This one has a 
flintlock, though both muskets and carbines were after- 
ward made, under Hall's patent, with percussion caps. 
The breech block is shown raised and ready for loading, 
in the photograph. The breech block was simply pushed 
down into place and line with the bore to make it ready 
for firing. It is a smoothbore, 28 gauge, or 0.55 inch 
caliber. The ramrod was only used as a cleaning rod. 
No. 14 i§ a muzzleloading "saw-handled" percussion 
cap pistol, with hammer and nipple underneath the bar- 
rel, which made it practicable to have the rear sight 
and front sight far apart. Its bore is 0.18 of an inch, 
and the rear and fore sights are 6y 2 inches apart. 
No. 15 is an an eight-barreled "pepper box," percussion 
cap, self-cocking revolver, having the Liege proof marks. 
The hammer is entirely concealed; differing in that 
respect from the six-shooter "pepper-box" of the Cali- 
fornia forty-niner, which was made in Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts. The barrels are of fine pattern Damascus, with 
bore of 0.19 of an inch. 
No. 16 is a pocket knife having a pistol barrel on the 
back of the handle with a nipple or tube for a percussion 
cap projecting from the breech or rear end of the barrel. 
It is shown at full cock in the photograph. The trigger 
folds up into the knife handle for carrying in the pocket. 
In the butt is a small magazine for carrying spare am- 
munition. The cover of this magazine is shown open in 
the photograph. Close to it, on the side, is a small bullet 
mold, with the handle pushed into a receptacle, by means 
of which a bullet can be made to fit the barrel, the bore 
of which is 0.30 inch. It is 6 J / 2 inches long from butt 
to muzzle, and the larger knife blade is 3^2 inches long. 
It bears the Birmingham proof marks, and was made by 
Unwin & Rodgers, Sheffield. 
' No. 17 is the "Le Mat" patent, percussion cap, re- 
volver. The cylinder has nine chambers of 0.41 inch 
bore. The axle upon which the cylinder turns is hollow, 
and forms a barrel of 0.64 inch bore, 18 gauge, for a 
large ball, or a load of buckshot. The head of the ham- 
mer is movable, and can be adjusted to strike the caps 
firing the chambers or the barrel in the axle. In the 
photograph it is adjusted to strike and fire the large 
barrel. The smaller barrel is 7 inches long, and the pis- 
tol is 14^ inches long from butt to muzzle, and weighs 
3 T A pounds. It is said that in our Civil War, Forrest's 
Confederate cavalry was armed with these revolvers. A 
pocket pistol on this principle, using eight 0.22 caliber 
rim-fire cartridges in the cylinder, and one 0.32 in the 
axle, was patented in this country in 1880 and manu- 
factured in Connecticut. 
No. 18 is a double-barreled pocket pistol on the 
Lefaucheaux principle, using the pin-fire cartridge. It 
has two hammers with secret triggers, for carrying in the 
pocket. The barrels are 2 x / 2 inches long, and from butt 
to muzzle it is 6 inches long, caliber 7mm. It illustrates 
fully the principles of Lefaucheaux, whose invention, in 
1836, of the pin-fire cartridge in copper, brass, and paper, 
and dropping down the barrels of guns from the breech 
made breechloaders practicable for modern sportsmen. 
No. 19 is a pin-fire Lefaucheaux revolver, 0.45 caliber, 
6 shots, 6 inches length of barrel. It was carried by a 
distinguished officer of the Sanitary Commission during 
our Civil War. 
No. 20 is a percussion cap breechloader, with steel bar- 
rel, bronze lock and action cover, and wooden stock or 
grip. The breech block is drawn back from the base of 
the barrel to allow insertion of combustible envelope car- 
tridge by a lever, which folds back against the stock. 
The 1 ever is shown in the photograph half way between 
the stock and trigger guard, and the breech block is 
partly withdrawn from the barrel. The barrel is 6 inches 
long, total length 11 inches, bore 0.23 inch; patented 
in United States in 1850 and made in New York. 
There is also in the collection a case of percussion 
lock duelling pistols, with all their furniture of flasks, 
loading and cleaning rods, bullet molds, etc., all in com- 
plete order. It was made by John Blanch, who was 
brought up in his trade by Joe Manton, and is men- 
tioned in Col. Peter Hawker's "Instructions to Young 
Sportsmen," published in 1820, as one of the ' reliable 
London gun makers. Blanch was gun maker to His 
Royal Highness the Prince Regent, which approximately 
fixes the date of the pistols as between 181 1 and 1820. 
Besides these, there are in the collection a very fine 
pair of Derringer pistols, gold and silver-mounted; a 
finely finished pair of double-barreled flintlock carriage 
pistols; some Turkish flintlock pistols, which seem to 
have been made rather for ornament than for use; 
several very small Damascus barrel, ivory-stocked, vest- 
pocket pistols; a double-barreled flintlock shotgun, 30- 
inch barrels, 20 gauge, 6 T / 2 pounds' weight, made by D. 
Egg, of London; a three-barreled, 32 caliber, rim-fire 
cartridge, pocket pistol, with a broad knife-blade, which 
projects from the muzzles like a bayonet; Colt's re- 
A^olvers, National revolvers, with special cartridges ; a 
pair of brass-barreled flintlock pistols, with brass lock 
plates and furniture ; an Allen patent breechloading shot- 
gun, the breech opening being like the Snyder musket; 
Spencer repeating carbine, Maynard, Burnside, Merrill, 
and Sharp carbines, _ 
