P O I 
above purpofe ; it is properly curved ; and, by thrufting 
it through a piece of leather, or folds of wet linen or 
fponge, we obtain the apparatus for clofmg the larynx. 
That the otlier end of the catheter may not fit any com¬ 
mon bellows that may beat hand is no objection, becaufe 
a little wet paper, with a handkerchief tied over it, will 
prevent any efcape of the air. If a catheter is not at 
hand, fome recommend clofing the mouth and one nof- 
tril, and placing the nozzel of the bellows into or in con- 
ta£l with the other noltril. They direft us to prevent 
the air from palling into the ftomach by firmly prefling 
the trachea back on the cefophagus ; and thus they lay 
the lungs may be inflated. This feems to us a very inef¬ 
fectual preventive. Independent of the number of per- 
fons required to perform the various offices; viz. one to 
hold the noltril and mouth, one to blow the bellows, one 
to prefs the trachea, one to rub and deprefs the cheft, it 
can fcarcely happen but that one of them, in the hurry 
and terror of fuch a moment, lets the air efcape at the 
aperture he is employed to guard, and thus frultrates the 
whole bufinefs. The better way, therefore, when a cathe¬ 
ter cannot be procured or introduced, is to cut a fimall 
hole into the front of the trachea, and apply any pipe, or 
even the nozzel of the bellows, to the aperture. In doing 
this, however, it is.ahfolutely neceflary to clofe the fupe- 
rior aperture of the larynx; otherwife all the air we blow 
in will efcape without going to the lungs. The finger 
will, however, eafily prefs a fponge in the above fituation 
fo as to exclude the air. 
3. Let warm ftimulating liquids be injeCled into the 
ftomach and into the inteftines. The apparatus we have 
before defcribed for withdrawing fluids is here very ufeful 
to injeft them with. 
4. Let friftion with warmed oil, applied by the hand or 
a brufli, be employed. 
5. Let gentle fhocks of eleftricity be palled through the 
region of the heart. 
6. Let thefe meafures be fteadily perfevered in, 
even for many hours ; and, laftly, do nothing elfe; for 
there are many proceedings advifed by the ignorant, 
which are injurious; fuch as hanging the head down, rub¬ 
bing the body with fpirits, and fo on. 
Cafes of afphyxia from hanging generally require bleed¬ 
ing, as apopleCtic fymptoms are commonly induced ; and 
it is to be remembered, that ftill-born infants, who are 
born with afphyxia, require a treatment fimilar to that 
juft defcribed, while thofe born apopleCtic require 
bleeding from the navel, a meafure direCtly oppofite. 
As to the poll mortem appearances which aerial poifons 
produce; in thofe who have been hanged, a red ring is 
feen round the neck, the face i^ fwollen and black. In 
thofe drowned, there are a dark livor on the counte¬ 
nance, and an abfence of the marks of compreflion on 
the neck. Suffocation from deleterious gafes is marked 
by a pale complexion. When water is difcovered in the 
lungs of drowned perfons, it pafles in after death, fince 
animals taken immediately from the water are feldom 
found to have received any. Other appearances on dif- 
feClion, are—a collapfed ftate of the lungs, the heart on 
the right fide turgid with blood, the left fide and the 
venal lyftem empty 5 water fometimes in the ftomach. 
III. Of Poisonous Wounds, Stings, Bites, &c. 
Many poifons inferted into wounds cnufe the fame 
aCfion as if admitted into the ftomach. Some, on the 
other hand, fatal taken into the ftomach, have no deadly 
influence in a wound ; and again, the reverfe of the latter 
propofition is alfo true. Thus the preparations of mercury 
and arienic kill when abforbed from other furfaces befides 
the ftomach ; but the acids and alkalis do not. Thus 
the poifon of the viper and other ferpents may be fwal- 
lowed with impunity, but produce violent efteCfs when 
inferted into the fmalleft punClure, while the Upas antfhar 
and Pruffic acid are equally fatal by both inlets. 
Of the dreadful powers of the fernent tribes to infliCt 
Vol. XX. No. 1413. 
S O N. 823 
poifonous wounds, w-e have given an ample account un¬ 
der the article Coluber. It belongs to this place to 
notice only the mode of cure. This varies fomevvhat 
according to the virulence of the poifon. The bite of the 
viper, in this country, feldom requires any thing further 
than to wafli the wound with a little ammonia, and ad- 
minifter fome ftimulating or tonic medicine. But, in the 
formidable attacks which follow the bites of fome foreign 
ferpents,. fecurity can only be^afforded by palling a liga¬ 
ture round the wounded limb fo tightly as to ftop the 
circulation, by laying open the wound freely, and apply¬ 
ing very fcrong cauftics, or even the actual cautery, or, 
what is ftill better, by completely and at once cutting 
out the part. Poifonous wounds are feldom met with. 
Under the article Archery, vol. ii. we have defcribed 
the mode in which among certain favages poifonous 
wounds are inflicted. Since that time,' the peculiar fub- 
ftances ufed have been difcovered. Thefe are of various 
kinds. 
The Upas, or poifon-tree of Java, has been the fubjeft 
of very marvellous ftories. N. P. Foerfch,a furgeon in the 
Dutch Eaft-India company’s fervice, wrote an account, 
(publifhed in Holland, 1783,) which afcri.bes to this tree 
fuch dreadful effedfts, that nobody can approach it with¬ 
out rifk of death; and hence that the juice is gathered 
only by criminals, of whom eight in ten generally periih 
in the performance of their talk. The tree, he tells us, 
he found fituated in the illand of Java, about 27 leagues 
from Batavia, 14 from Soura Charta, the emperor’s fear, 
and about 13 from Tinkjoe, the reftdence of the fultan of 
Java. It is lurrounded on all ftdes by hills and moun¬ 
tains; and the adjacent country, for twelve miles round 
the tree, is entirely barren, and is covered only with Hones 
and dead bodies. He defcribes likewife the execution of 
thirteen fai'thlefs concubines of the king or emperor of 
Bantam (in 1776), which was performed by a lancet 
dipped in the juice of this tree; with other wonderful par¬ 
ticulars. This account is known to be entirely fa life: it 
lias even been denied that any poifonous tree, called 
Upas , exifts in Java; but recent and 'refp’flable authors 
all'ert, that there are two kinds of poifonous trees in 
Java. The firtt, called Antfhar, anfwers to the Upas of 
Macaflar, and the other ealtern iflands. It is one of the 
largeft trees in Java; and, contrary to Foerfcli’s aflertion 
of its deleterious influence on vegetation, grows only in 
the thickeft forefts, and its Item is clofely befet with 
flirubs. It has a whitilh bark, which near the root is half 
an inch thick ; and it is at this part that incifions are 
made, and the poifonous lap, or juice, col 1 e< 5 led. It pro¬ 
duces no bad effect on thofe who approach, or even 
afcend it; but, when largely wounded or felled, the 
effluvia it emits affefl thofe who areexpofed to them with 
a troublefome cutaneous eruption. The natives add hot 
fpices to the juice when they prepare it for ufe; but it is 
unlikely that fuch a procefs adds any force to the poifon. 
The other poifonous tree of Java is the TJJxeitUi. Its 
juice is extracted in the manner above mentioned, and is 
boiled until it acquires the confluence of fyrup. Its 
effects are more violent than thofe of the antfhar, and are 
differently manifefted; the antfhar deftroying the func¬ 
tions of the heart primarily, the tlhettik thofe of the 
brain. Dr. Horfefield (in the feventh volume of the 
Memoirs of the Batavian Society) tells us, that, in ani¬ 
mals killed by the antfhar, the large veffels in the thorax, 
aorta, and venre cavte, were found in an excelfive degree 
of diftention ; the lungs were uniformly filled in a pre¬ 
ternatural degree with blood, which, in this vifcus and 
in the aorta, ftill retained a florid colour, and was com¬ 
pletely oxygenated. The veffels of the liver, of the fto- 
ntach and inteftines, were alfo more than naturally diften- 
ded, but not in the fame degree as thofe of the breaft. 
In the cavity of the abdomen, a final 1 quantity of ferum 
was fometimes effufed. The ftomach was always diften- 
ded with air; and in thefe inftances in which the adftion 
of the poifon was gradual, and in which vomiting fuper- 
10 A veiled 
