207 
From these experiments, I gather the following as the results 
of the action of Antiaris latex on injection. The heart-beat at 
first rises in frequency, then immediately commences to fall till 
death. The intestines, especially the colon and stomach, contract 
rapidly and convulsively, and the contents of the latter, and often 
that of the former, are ejected. The pupils of the eyes contract. 
The blood is congested in the mesenteric vessels, the spleen and 
liver, and often in the outer walls of the stomach and intestines, 
but the inner coats are nearly bloodless. The brain and spinal 
cord do not seem ever to be affected. The loss of power of the 
limbs which sometimes occurs, does not appear due to paralysis ; 
it only comes on towards the death of the animal, and seems to be 
due merely to the general collapse. Death is not due, in most 
instances at least, to the convulsions of the digestive tract, but 
apparently to some interference with the heart’s action. 
Horsfield, who wrote a paper on the poison and its effects, des- 
cribes the symptoms and the post-mortem appearances in a 
very similar manner. He says that in animals killed by Antiaris , 
the aorta and venal canals were in every case found in an exces- 
sive degree of distention, the viscera in the vicinity of the source 
of circulation were uniformly filled to a prseternatural degree 
with blood, which still retained a florid colour and was complete- 
ly oxygenated. On puncturing the vessel, it bounded out with 
all the elasticity and spring of life. The vessels of the liver, 
stomach and intestines, and of the viscera of the abdomen in 
general, were also more than naturally distended, but not in the 
same degree as the breast. The stomach was always distended 
with air. 
The records of the action of Iftoh upon man are very scanty, 
the use of the poison in war having been long given up, and the 
few observations on its effects made some centuries ago being 
naturally very inadequate. 
At the siege of Malacca (Albuquerque, Hakluyt’s voyages, 
vol. ii) it was remarked that all soldiers wounded with the darts 
died, except one man who was burned with a red-hot iron directly 
he was struck, “so that ultimately God spared his life.” 
Wray describes an accident with a dart in Perak thus. — 
“While unloading and carrying the baggage over the rocks, 
a poisoned blowpipe dart fell out of a quiver and stuck in the 
upper part of one of the men’s feet. It was at once pulled out, 
and a Semang squeezed the wound to get out as much blood as 
possible, then tied a tight ligature round his leg, and put lime- 
juice into the wounds. The man complained of great pain in the 
foot, cramps in the stomach, and vomited, but these symptoms 
soon passed off. The point only went into the foot about 1 inch 
and the dart was instantly pulled out. The Semangs said that, 
had it gone deep into the fleshy part of the body, it would have 
caused death.” 
From this account, I think, it may be gathered that Antiaris 
has practically the same effect upon man that it has upon other 
mammals. 
