330 
POISON TREE. 
of sciences. Besides, Java is so universally reputed 
an unhealthy island, that rich travellers seldom 
make any long stay in it ; and others want money, 
and are generally too ignorant of the language to 
travel in order to make inquiries. In future those 
who visit this island will now probably be induced 
to make it an object of their researches, and will 
furnish us with a fuller description of the tree.” 
Doctor Aejmelaeus, who has likewise given some 
account of the poison tree in an Inaugural Disser- 
tation published at Upsal, nearly agrees with M. 
Foersch ; and says, that the tree is always solitary, 
the soil around it being barren, and, as it were, 
burnt up. It appears from his account that the 
juice is collected with the greatest caution, the per- 
son having his head, hands, and feet carefully co- 
vered with linen, that his whole body may be pro- 
tected from the vapour as well as from the drop- 
pings of the tree. No one can approach so near as 
to gather the juice: hence they apply bamboos, 
pointed like a spear, which they thrust obliquely 
with great force into the trunk; the juice oozing 
out gradually fills the upper joint ; and the nearer 
the root the wound is made, the more virulent the 
poison is supposed to be. Sometimes upwards of 
twenty reeds are left fixed in the tree for three or 
four days, that the juice may collect and harden in 
the cavities ; the upper joint of the reed is then cut 
off from the remaining part, the concreted juice is 
formed into globules or sticks, and is kept in hol- 
low reeds, carefully closed, and wrapped in tenfold 
