Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-09
USE OF POISONED WEAPONS
How Barbarious Nations Make Sure of
Dealing Death.
Vegetable AIknIOids More to he Fear
ed Than PoisOns of Animal or
MicrObial Origin.
From La Nature.


| to the discovery of powder and firearms,
primitive people, owing to the insufficiency
of their weapons to cause prompt death.
have invented means of giving them poi
sonous qualities. Poisoned weapons, wheth
err they are arrows, knives, lances or what
rot, may get their fatal properties from
either vegetable or animal poisons. The
South American Indians use curare: the
ratives of India. Indo-China, Borneo and
the Mouccas employ (or rather did employ
the upas to poison their weapons; the ne
groes of the Soudan and the Congo still
make use of a poison extracted from diff
ferent varieties of strophanthus called
M boumou or ine according to the regions
where it is employed; the people of South
Africa, the Hottentots, the Bushmen, the
kaffirs and the Akkas poison their arrows
with the venom of divers serpents the
cobra de capello among others; certain
tribes OF equatorial Africa, the NDris and
the Banjiris. use their arrows, after long
burial in decomposing corpses, to com
| municate blood poisoning, which results in
speedy death; in Oceanca the natives OF
New Caledonia, the Hebrides and the Solo
mon group give their enemies lockjaw by
soaking their arrows in marshes contain
ing large quantities Of the bacillus Of the
tetanuS.
The first three kinds of poison are prac-
tically of vegetable origin, though the local
medicine men mix with their preparations
| red ants. snakes venom. toads' eyes, etc.:
they are the characteristic alkaloids OF
plants which serve the basis Of a dead
ly poisonous mixture. Curare. upas and
m boumou have as their principal elements
plants whose species vary with the tribe.
and which all belong to the strychnine fam
lily. The three last named poisous, except
that Of the South African negroes, are of
nlicrobial origin.
What are the value. duration and activity
Of these poisons? Curare keeps indefinite
ly In 1857, in the course Of experiments in
physiology made in France with curarized
arrows brought in 1852 from equatorial
America by La Condamfne, fowl scratch
ed with one of these arrows died in seven
minutes; among the Outteto Indians Jumps
of curare handed down from father to son
have preserved all their poisonous activity
although covered with mold. The same
may be said for the upas. which, kept in
little sections of bamboo for seven or eight
years, retains the same active qualities as
when freshly prepared Malay weapons.
even those of steel, always keep their pol
sonous properties. The black races that use
inc claim that 1t will keep only short
time before it spoils. Now inc, which is an
aqueous maceration Of strophanthus seeds.
to which is added the juice of a fig or OF a
euphorbia, and generally also vipers venom,
becomes covered with mold at the end OF a
few weeks, but Notwithstanding 1t has pre-
served all its toxic properties; guinea pigs
have been killed In few minutes by be-
ing scratched with arrows whose points
had nodded. In fact, the vegetable poisons
used by primitive peoples for their arrows
keep Indefinitely and always make effective
weapons.
This is not the case with poisons Of ami
NAL or microbal origin. AS we have seen
above, the BuShmen. the kaffirs and the
Akkas poison the points Of their arrows
with serpent venom, especially that of the
cobra; at the end Of two or three weeks
their arms have lost all harmful quality.
This is due to single cause. The venom
of snakes, which is preserved indefinitely
In alcohol becomes covered in air with
peculiar mold, which has not been studied
hitherto, and which removes all poisonous
effects from the venom. The poison used on
the arrows Of the N'Dris of the upper
Ubanghi is nothing else than the septic
vibrio (mcrobe of blood poisoning). which
dies in the air if 1t Is not in the presence OF
decomposition. Thus these arrows are harm
full only during a very short time. AS for
the arrows Of the New Caledonians. which
infect their victim with tetanus, authorities
do not agree about the duration of their
harmful action, although it is proved that
the bacillus Of Nicolaier cannot live ex-
cept il, very moist medium and together
with other bacilli, harmless or otherwise,
such as the septic bacillus, which, as we
have seen. dies in a short time.
Thus in all cases the poisoned arrows OF
the races that make Of vegetable al
kaOds are much more to be feared than
those of the tribes that employ poisons OF
animal or microbial origin.