358 
Stoical Courage or an Indian. 
stoppage of pure air tlie signs of recalled vitality disappeared. After 
another two hours the forced air could be dispensed with; the animal 
once more stood erect on her legs and showed no further paralyses, 
while the wound through which the poison had been introduced healed 
without any trouble: it was only that all the generative functions 
seemed to have been essentially disturbed, a disturbance that was re- 
covered after the course of a year. From what the Indians say, the poison 
acts quickest on monkeys and on felines. 
905. I am repeating a story as it was told me that at the same time 
illustrates with Avhat stoical courage, with what dignified >*esolution, the 
Indian submits to the inevitable. Two hunters go after monkeys with 
their blow-gun: they soon find their quarry — but one of them misses 
his mark, the little arrow falls back and strikes the hunter’ 3 arm Where 
it remains stuck. He calmly pulls out the deadly tip, squats on the 
ground, takes his blow-gun, breaks it in pieces, puts his quiver and arrows 
beside him exclaiming “I don/t want you again,” says good-bye to his 
companion, and dies without saying another word. 
9GG. As the action of the poison has been described so many times 
already, I would only just note here that if taken internally it is 
without effect, provided the mouth or palate is free from abrasion. When 
the Indians smear the arrow tips with it and a bit sticks on their fingers, 
I have often seen them licking it off without spitting it out again, and 
frequently enough done the same thing myself. As a matter of fact my 
brother on his first journey even took it in small 'doses as a cure for 
fever when the quinine ran out, but experienced a peculiar headache 
every time after taking it: his companions who recognised the dangerous 
character of the experiment, because he could easily have had an abrasion 
on the. gums or palate without knowing it, broke him of the 
habit.* Increased atmospheric moisture deprives the poison of its 
strength, for which reason it is kept by the Indians in the driest spots of 
the house. 
* These actual experiences are certainly opposed by others according to which the poison 
shows fatal results also if taken internally. Amongst the many experiments carried out by my 
brother, Otto Schomburgk. was one where he supplied three equally vigorous and 
healthy cats, the one with the poison externally, the second internally, and the 
third with an equal quantity of strychnine externally. The convulsions of the 
Urari poisoning completely sank into the background as compared with the tetanus 
and trismus of the strychnine poisoning, and the death produced by it in the former 
cases was, as compared with the latter, a quiet sleep. The cat externally poisoned 
with the Urari died in the course of 11 minutes, the one with strychnine in 12. The 
animal to which the Urari had been administered internally lived for 17 minutes, its death 
being accompanied by symptoms similar to those with the externally poisoned one : on dissec- 
tion, the stomach as well as the whole of the small intestines was coloured with the dissolved 
poison, and no sign of a wound was to be seen either in the mouth or in the gullet. To 
these enquiries made several years ago. I now subjoin the following interesting facts in connec- 
tion with the inward and outward application of Urari that have been established as the result 
of a whole series of experiments carried out at the beginning of the present year by Dr. Virchow 
prosector of the Königlichen Charite, and Dr. Julius Munter. The material investigated by 
them had been prepared in my presence, and accordingly must have been five years old. Here 
also, the internal poisoning showed the same effects as those noticed bv my brother on the cats 
treated by him. Both gentlemen inform me of their results in the following letter, for which 
I hereby publicly express my thanks, because through its agency many an erroneous impression 
of the toxic effect will be refuted, while it is to be hoped at the same time that as a result of 
their efforts a correct knowledge of the poison will be obtained, 
