564 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOUBNAL AND TBANSACTIONS. 
[^January 13, 1873. 
Hindustani Bis, Singya, Singya-bis , Mitha-zahar, 
Teliya-bis, and Bachhnag are given to varieties of 
tlie same plant; Navi and Vasha-navi being the 
Tamul, and Vasanabhi and Nabhi the Telugu names. 
Bish is also the Bengali, Vachhnag the Gujerate, and 
Vachanabhi the Cinglialese names. The same work 
mentions four varieties of Bish, two of which are 
named black and white according to the colour of 
their substance internally. 
1. Kola,-bavhnag (Black Bish). “ The black 
variety is generally of a reddish-brown colour, and 
is considered by native practitioners and druggists 
to be more virulent than the other.” This is the 
whole description which Moodeen Sheriff gives of 
this variety. 
2. Sufed-bachnag (White Bish) is not described at 
all. 
3. Mitha-zahar (sweet poison). This name is 
usually applied to “ a root an inch or an inch and 
a half in length, and its circumference at the base 
about the same; it is tapering, slightly compressed, 
and very rough from wrinkles ; brown externally, 
and pale brown internally ; slightly but distinctly 
sweet in taste, and produces a kind of tingling or 
peculiar sensation on the tongue when chewed.” 
4. Singya-bis (Horny BisJt) or Teliya-bis, “ looks 
like a small horn of a deer or goat, being very hard, 
smooth and tapering; and of a dark brown colour. 
It is generally longer than the sweet variety, but 
seldom more in thickness; and the colour of its 
substance is dark brown, shining when recently 
broken. On chewing a very (small bit of it, there is 
a feeling of great acridity on the tongue and lips, 
which is followed by a kind of numbness or altered 
sensation.” Of these varieties the Singya-bis is 
considered the strongest of all, and Mitha-zahar the 
weakest. 
Hr. Buchanan, in his ‘ Account of the Kingdom of 
Nepaul,’ names four kinds of Bish, of which the 
Singya-bikh is one, and is referred^by him to a spe¬ 
cies of Smilax. In the absence of specimens and 
detailed information, it would be fruitless attempt¬ 
ing to determine the sources of the varied drugs 
bearing the name of Nirbisi or “ Btwhnag ” in 
different parts of India. 
The officinal drug is described in the Pharma¬ 
copoeia of *India as follows :—“ It occurs in the 
form of tuberous roots of a more or less conical 
form, from two to three inches in length, and from 
half an inch to one inch in thickness at their upper 
end. They have usually a shrunken appearance, 
and are covered with a dark shrivelled bark ; frac¬ 
ture sliming and resinous, sometimes waxy, vary¬ 
ing in colour from pale to deep brown. Some spe¬ 
cimens are white and spongy, and these, it is as¬ 
serted, are superior in activitv to the more com- 
pact kinds. Inodorous ; taste at first slightly bitter, 
leaving a peculiar sense of numbness on the tongue 
and fauces.” In Baden Powell’s ‘ Punjab Pro¬ 
ducts ’ Bish is described as a dark brown wrinkled 
conical root, with either a black or wdiite centre, 
very brittle, containing much starch, Taste, irritat¬ 
ing and acrid, causing a persistent tingling sensa¬ 
tion; a virulent acronarcotic poison, containing from 
50 to 90 grains of aconitine in a pound. It pro¬ 
duces tingling and numbness, debility and con¬ 
traction of the pupil. Used by natives and Euro¬ 
peans in rheumatism and neuralgia, but seldom 
given internally^; by the latter also employed in 
tetanus, rheumatism, gout, and heart disease, also 
leprosy, and cholera fever. Dr. O’Shaughnessy 
observes that the roots (which enter into several 
formula constantly employed by the native prac¬ 
titioners, and which are also doubtless too often used 
as convenient instruments of poisoning) are sold in 
every bazaar in India, and may be purchased in large 
quantities for about 10 annas the seer. A prepara¬ 
tion of the root is much used in all the hilly districts 
in India to poison arrows for the destruction of will 
beasts. “ We seldom, however, obtain the root suffi¬ 
ciently fresh in the plains to produce such effects as 
would explain its alleged utility for this purpose. 
It has been used on several occasions to poison wells 
and tanks, and doubtless might be made a formid¬ 
able means of defence against the invasion of the 
territories in which it abounds.” 
Captain Lov-tlier, writing from Assam in 1859, 
with a specimen of the ‘Bikh’ or aconite poison, 
observes that “ of twenty-five wounded Europeans 
only four died, one of these in half an hour. For¬ 
tunately for humanity the Digarroo tribes arc the 
sole producers of tills virulent drug, and the}" are 
cliiefiy peaceable traders. It is almost solely to the 
rascality of our subjects that the hostile tribes are 
now indebted for their comparatively small, and 
hence adulterated, supply of this root, which, under 
the present system of frontier trade, finds its w T ay 
dow r n into the shops of the covetous Hindostanee 
Bunneahs, and thence oozes out in the transactions 
for rice and boats with the Mori nomades of the 
Dihong, and these in their turn purvey all they can 
get to the Abors. Fortunately, our enemies have to 
pay for their poison, and even then cannot obtain 
the genuine article, or our force would all be dead 
men. The great alpine region of the Digarroo 
country is described as abounding with the plant 
furnishing the Bish. Last cold season I was out 
with a Digarroo hunting party; one of the men 
stalked a large female sambur deer feeding on the 
grass; he made a bad shot, merely ripping up the 
skin on her side, and off she bounded, followed by 
the active savage, vdio caught her up in her death 
struggles a few hundred yards. I am told that the 
method of preparing the drug is as follov r s:—Bruise 
the root on a flat stone, gradually grinding it into a 
mass with the fresh juice of the fruit of Billenia 
spcciosa ; while in tins moist state it is to be kneaded 
to the required size of the w r ood of the arrow r to be 
poisoned, a few deep notches being first cut just 
below the junction of the metal that the weapon may 
break off into the wound. The ‘ Singpho’ people 
slay their elephants and rhinoceroses after this fashion 
—the hunter patiently tracking them till they drop, 
and which sometimes occupies many hours. 
“ The Kamptees tell me they employ saltpetre both 
externally and internally in case of wounds so 
poisoned, with success ; others profess to heal with 
seeds or barks of the jungles, and which I have seen 
administered to a wounded man without saving his 
life. However small and superficial the said arrow 
wounds, even those made with pointed bamboos, the 
pain is described as horrible, aud the appearance is 
invariably highly inflamed and attended with sup¬ 
puration. Dysentery too is a usual feature, and con¬ 
comitant of these venomous applications, and which 
seem to affect the native less than the European 
system, to judge by the rapid recovery of the former 
under medical treatment. Dr. White of the Naval 
Brigade was eminently successful in his treatment 
of wounded soldiers. It ought to be known that lm 
