328 
POISON TREE. 
the animal began to cry out most piteously, and 
ran as fast as possible from one corner of the room 
to the other. So it continued during six minutes; 
when all its strength being exhausted, it fell upon 
the ground, was taken with convulsions, and died 
in the eleventh minute. I repeated this experi- 
ment with two other puppies, with a cat, and a fowl, 
and found the operation of the poison in all of them 
the same : none of these animals survived above 
thirteen minutes. 
{t I thought it necessary to try also the effect of 
the poison given inwardly, which I did in the fol- 
lowing manner : I dissolved a quarter of a grain of 
the gum in half an ounce of arrack, and made a dog 
of seven months old drink it. In seven minutes a 
retching ensued, and I observed at the same time, 
that the animal was delirious; as it ran up and 
down the room, fell on the ground, and tumbled 
about ; then it rose again, cried out very loud, and 
about half an hour after was seized with con- 
vulsions, and died. I opened the body, and found 
the stomach very much inflamed, as the intestines 
were in some parts, but not so much as the sto- 
mach. There was a small quantity of coagulated 
blood in the stomach ; but I could discover no 
orifice from which it could have issued ; and there- 
fore supposed it to have been squeezed out of the 
lungs, by the animal’s straining while it was vo- 
miting. 
“ From these experiments I have been convinced 
that the gum of the upas is the most dangerous 
