CHINESE  POISONS. 
63 
these  arrows,  are  adjusted  near  the  lair  of  the  animal  for  his 
destruction.  When  a  limb  is  struck,  the  beast  writhes  awhile 
before  expiring,  but  when  wounded  in  the  body,  he  leaps  for- 
ward, staggers  and  falls  dead  immediately.  Attached  to  the 
imperial  body-guard  is  a  corpse  of  hunters,  who,  when  on  the 
chase  in  pursuit  of  edible  game,  provide  themselves  with  en- 
venomed missives  to  be  employed  against  wolves. 
Latterly,  poisoned  arrows  have  fallen  into  comparative  disuse 
as  implements  of  war,  owing  to  an  increasing  familiarity  with 
fire-arms.  We  are  acquainted  with  the  contriver  of  a  machine 
which  was  designed  to  be  used  against  the  Euglish  during  the 
late  war.  It  succeeded  so  well  in  picking  off  goats  which  were 
led  over  the  cords  communicating  with  it,  that  the  military  com- 
mission strongly  recommend  its  adoption  for  destroying  barba- 
rian bipeds.  Unfortunately  for  the  patriotic  inventor,  the  treaty 
of  Nanking  caused  the  dispersion  of  the  game,  just  as  it  was,  as 
he  supposed,  about  to  be  largely  bagged.  It  need  hardly  be 
added  that,  in  the  hands  of  assassins,  this  easily  obtainable  poi- 
son would  prove  a  potent  means  of  destruction  ;  as  a  slight  punc- 
ture of  an  instrument  charged  with  it,  would,  from  its  rapid 
absorption,  be  a  sure  coup  de  grace. 
It  is  not  our  purpose  to  point  out  all  the  virulent  agents  which 
unscrupulous  Chinamen  are  likely  to  employ  against  an  enemy. 
We  shall  only  add  one  more  of  the  inoculating  class,  and  that 
chiefly  on  account  of  its  novelty.  When  the  late  commissioner 
Lin  was  devising  means  for  the  extirpation  of  English  barba- 
rians at  Canton,  some  of  the  gentry  of  that  city  actually  pro- 
posed to  H.  E.  to  rid  the  place  of  certain  prominent  and 
obnoxious  individuals  by  infecting  them  with  leprosy.  Lin  in- 
dignantly rejected  the  proposition  as  unbecoming  a  civilized 
people.  That  Chinese  statesman  was  a  brave  and  honorable 
man  ;  his  present  Manchu  successor  has  no  claim  to  such  virtues. 
His  chief  objection  to  the  use  of  leprous  virus  would  be,  it  is 
said,  the  tardiness  of  its  action ;  it  is  believed  that  more  than  a 
month  elapses  after  the  introduction  of  the  animal  poison,  before 
it  begins  to  show  itself  in  its  victim.  Our  knowledge  of  this 
foul  malady  is  too  imperfect  to  justify  us  in  pronouncing  such 
an  inoculation  as  impracticable. 
There  are  poisons  also  which  are  inhaled,    A  person,  who 
