454         WOORARA,  OR  SOUTH  AMERICAN  ARROW  POISON. 
This  production  of  ammonia  depending  on  nitrogenous  princi- 
ples in  the  leaves,  of  which  atropia  is  one,  this  alkaloid  should 
disappear  in  part  or  altogether,  as  it  is  known  to  change  easily 
into  ammonia  and  another  odorous  base,  very  soluble  in  water 
(the  atropine  of  Berzelius),  when  placed  under  similar  conditions. 
For  the  rest,  when  belladonna  leaves  putrify  like  other  - organic 
matters, — and  the  instance  above  is  a  commencement  of  putrefac- 
tion,— it  is  probable  that  the  alterations  which  then  occur  do 
not  respect  the  salts  of  atropia,  and  even  if  they  did,  the  changes 
which  have  supervened  must  injure  the  medicinal  quality  of  the 
drug. 
The  author  believes  that  these  alterations  occur  frequently  in 
the  shop  without  its  being  perceived,  because  the  leaves  are  not 
preserved  in  close  vessels  so  as  to  retain  the  gases  that  may  de- 
velope.  He  also  believes  that  similar  metamorphoses  supervene 
during  the  desiccation  of  leaves  when  the  process  is  effected  too 
slowly,  and  incipient  fermentation  ensues  Repertoire  de  Phar- 
macies Feb.,  1855. 
WOORARA,  OR  SOUTH  AMERICAN  ARROW  POISON. 
By  John  W.  Green,  M.  D. 
Dr.  J.  W.  Green,  of  New  York,  in  a  long  letter  in  the  New 
York  Medical  Gazette  for  July,  gives  an  account  of  this  poison, 
and  of  a  series  of  experiments  made  with  it  by  himself  and  Dr. 
Brainard,  at  Paris,  proving  that  iodine  possesses  antidotal  powers 
when  brought  in  contact  with  this  poison  in  a  wound. 
De  la  Condamine,  oh  his  return  from  South  America,  in  1745, 
brought  this  poison  to  the  notice  of  the  French  Academy,  and 
was  assisted  by  Van  Swieten  in  studying  its  effects  at  Leyden. 
It  appear^  to  be  4<  an  extract  made  of  the  juices  of  certain 
plants,"  and  that  made  by  the  Ticunas  is  said  to  embrace  thirty 
varieties.  . 
Bancroft,  in  1769,  obtained  the  following  recipe  from  the 
Accawan  tribe  of  Indians,  which  would  be  rather  difficult  to 
compound,  viz  : 
Take  of  the  bark  of  the  root  Woorara       -    6  parts. 
"  u  "   Worracobba  -    2  " 
"  "  "  Couranopi 
"  Bakiti  and  Hotchyboly,  each     1  " 
