WANDERINGS IN 
04 
FIRST 
JOURNF .' 1 
Experi¬ 
ment 
upon an 
ox. 
this fatal poison; viz. the death of the hog, and that 
- of the sloth. But still these animals were nothing 
remarkable for size; and the strength of the poison 
in large animals might yet be doubted, were it not 
for what follows. 
A large well-fed ox, from nine hundred to a 
thousand pounds’ weight, was tied to a stake by a rope 
sufficiently long to allow him to move to and fro. 
Having no large Coucourite spikes at hand, it was 
judged necessary, on account of his superior size, to 
put three wild-hog arrows into him ; one was sent 
into each thigh just above the hock, in order to 
avoid wounding a vital part, and the third was shot 
traversely into the extremity of the nostril. 
The poison seemed to take effect in four minutes. 
Conscious as though he would fall, the ox set him¬ 
self firmly on his legs, and remained quite still in 
the same place, till about the fourteenth minute, 
when he smelled the ground, and appeared as if 
inclined to walk. He advanced a pace or two, 
staggered, and fell, and remained extended on his side, 
with his head on the ground. His eye, a few minutes 
ago so bright and lively, now became fixed and dim, 
and though you put your hand close to it, as if to 
give him a blow there, he never closed his eye-lid. 
His legs were convulsed, and his head from time 
to time started involuntarily; but he never showed 
the least desire to raise it from the ground; he 
breathed hard, and emitted foam from his moutly 
The startings, or subsultus tendinum, now beca 
gradually weaker and weaker ; his hinder parts were 
