356 Superstitions Concerning Urari Manufacture. 
“ In the course of my experiments I also secured a considerable deposit from the 
watery solution of the portion of Urari dissolved in alcohol and water by the addition of 
pure tannic acid obtained by Pelouze’s method. Nevertheless, it did not dissolve so easily 
in oxalic acid as Boussingault mentions: on the other hand it was fairly easily soluble in 
boiling water. I therefore took it still moist from the filter and boiled it with magnesia : 
on evaporating to dryness there remained an extract-like material, which, on removal with 
alcohol, still left some insoluble magnesia-salt behind. The substance, boiled afresh, form- 
ed a brown-yellow extract that did not give an alkaline reaction as Boussingault states, but 
possessed the poisonous properties of Urari to a high degree. 
“ It was impossible to regard this substance as pure, because it could only be obtained 
as a brown extract. I accordingly searched for re-agents other than tannic acid, which 
might be able to precipitate it, and found them in mercury chloride and platinum chloride : 
with the latter, the precipitate was almost insoluble, with the former, on the other hand, 
it dissolved to a considerable degree by washing. 
“ I now treated the poison that had been precipitated by the tannic acid and again 
separated from it, by platinum chloride; the yellow precipitate that under the microscope 
seemed to be amorphous was washed, decomposed by heating with sulphuretted hydrogen, 
and I boiled the fluid that was filtered off from the platinum sulphide, with lead oxide. 
The poison could then be again extracted from the residue with alcohol, but as it still 
gave a yellow-brown extract after evaporation of the alcohol, I was unable to regard 
it as pure. Accordingly, I treated it afresh with chloride of mercury, washed the precipi- 
tate a few times and then separated the organic matter from the chlorine and mercury in 
the same way that it had been separated previously from the platinum and chlorine. Still, 
the material obtained was again a yellow-brown extract, although the precipitate obtained 
by the mercury chloride was completely white. 
From the preceding, it will be seen that I have not yet succeeded in obtaining the pois- 
onous material contained in the Urari in a pure state. Nevertheless, even in the impure 
condition in which I did obtain it, the smallest quantity was very effective. A rabbit, into 
which I introduced barely 3 milligrammes in a fresh wound in the thigh, was dead in seven 
minutes. 
“This poisonous extract contains nitrogen, as can easily be demonstrated by Lassaigue’s 
method with soda. It gives precipitates with tannic acid, platinum chloride and mercury 
chloride. The two former are yellow and the latter white. I have not been able to discov- 
er other prominent reactions of the substance. 
“ Besides the most important ingredient of the Urari poison, I found it to contain sugar, 
gum, resin, extractive matter, tannic acid, gallic acid and traces of compound salts of 
organic acids, probably tartaric and citric. 
“ This is all in short that I can tell you about the results of my investigations. 
Dr. HEINTZ. 
96«. Of all the many myths about the manufacture of Urari in associa- 
tion with pounded poison-fangs of the most venomous snakes, of ants, 
capsicums, etc., — articles which so many travellers, who have witnessed 
its preparation, maintain they themselves have seen added, I have at 
least noticed nothing amongst the Macusis, although their poison is the 
most celebrated and most rapidly effective of any between the Amazon 
stream and the Orinoco. My old poison-maker, from whom I made 
enquiry, told me that neither the one nor the other was necessary and 
that he never added these, at the same time denying that they would 
contribute to its quicker action. The most difficult task for him was 
that he must submit to a stringent fast both before and during its manu- 
facture. A further inviolable rule demands that during the boiling no 
woman nor maid, and most certainly no pregnant female, should come 
near the factory : the poison-maker’s wife must also not happen to be in 
this condition. He also asked me, during the manufacture, not to eat 
any sugar-cane or sugar.! The fire below the pot must not be completely 
extinguished. Were any one of these tabus to be broken all his skill would 
prove ineffectual in preventing the article losing its virtue. The 
t— This prohibition may well be the reason for the Indians believing that sugar-juice is 
an antidote for a wound by Urari : they consequently believe it would also lose its strength 
if an Indian after eating sugar-cane were to come close to the poison while being boiled. 
