The Dickinson press., 1899-11-04
POISONED WEAPONS.
HOW SAVAGE NATIONS MAKE SURE
OF DEALING DEATH.

Some of the vcnomous Mixtures Used
by the B~arbnrinns Retain Their
Life Destroying Properties For an
Indefinite Time.
From the age of stone up to the time
when the art of killing ones neighbor
led to the discovery of powder and fire
arms primitive peoples, owing to tho
insutficiency of their weapons to cause
prompt death, have invented means Of
giving them poisonous qualities. Poi
soned weapons, whether they are ar
rows, knives, lances or what not, ma
get their fatal properties from either
vegetable or animal pcisons.
The South American Indians use
curare; tho natives of India, Indo-
China, Bornco and tho Moluccas m
ploy, or rather did employ, the upas to
poison their weapons; the negroes Of
the Sudan and the Kongo still make
use of u poison extracted from different
varieties of strophanthus called m'bou-
mou or inc, according to tho regions
where it is employed; tho people of
bouth Africa, the Hottentots, the Bush
men, 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 N'Dris and the Banjiris,
use their arrows after long burial in
decomposing corpses, to communicate
blood poisoning, which results in
speedy death; in Oceanica the natives
of New Caledonia, tho Hebridcs and
the Solomon group give their enemies
lockjaw by soaking their arrows in
marshes containing large quantities of
the bacillus of tetanus.
Tho first three kinds of poison are
practically of vegetable origin, though
tho local medicine men mix with their
preparations red ants, snakes venom,
toads' eyes, etc. They are the charac-
teristic alkaloids Of plants, which serve
as the basis of a deadly poisonous mix
ture. Curare, upas and m'boumou have
as their principal clements plants
whose species vary with the tribe, and
which all belong to the strychnine fam
lily. The three last named poisons, ex-
cept that Of the South African negroes,
are of microbial origin.
What are the value, duration and
activity Of these poisons? Curare keeps
indefinitely. In 1867 in the course Of
experiments in physiology made in
France with curarized arrows brought
in 1862 from equatorial America by La
Condamine, a fowl scratched with one
of these arrows died in seven minutes.
Among the Ouiteto Indians, Jumps of
curare handed down from father to son
have preserved all their poisonous ac-
tivity, although covered with mold.
Tho same may be said for tho upas,
which, kept in little sections Of bamboo
for seven OF eight years, retains the
sa1le active qualities as when freshly
prepared. Malay weapons, even those
Of steel, always keep their poisonous
properties.
Tho black races that use inc claim
that it will keep only a short time be-
fore it spoils. Now, inc, which is an
aqueous maceration Of s%trophanthus
seeds, to which is added tho juice Of a
fig Oh Of a euphorbi, and generally also
vipers' venom, becomes covered with
mold at the end of a few weeks, but
Notwithstanding it has preserved all its
toxic properties. Guinea pigs have been
killed in q few minutes by being
scratched with rrows whose points
had nodded. In fact, tho vegetable
poisons used by primitive peoples fol
their arrows keep indefinitely and al,
ways make effective weapons.
This is not tho case with poisons Of
animal or microbian origin. AS We
have seen above, tho Bushmen, the
Kafirs and the Akkas poison the points
of their arrows with serpent venom
especially that Of the cobra. At the enc
of two or three weeks their arms have
lost all harmful quality. This is due tx
a single cause. The venom Of snakes
which is preserved indefinitely in alec
hol, becomes covered in air with o pc
culiar mold, which has not been studied
hitherto and which removes all poison
GUS effect from the non
The poison used on the arrows Of tn
N'Dris Of tho Upper Ubanghi is moth
ing else than tho septic vibrio (microb
of blood poisoning), which dies in tn
air if it is not in tho presence of de
composition. Thus those arrows ar
harmful only during a very short time
As for the arrows Of the New Gale
domains, which infect their victim witt
tetanqs, authorities do not agree abou
the duration of their harmful action
although it is proved that the bacillu
of Nicolaicr cannot live except in a yer.
moist medium and together with othe
bacilli, harmless or otherwise, such a
the septic bacillus, which, as we hav
seen, dies in a short time.
Thus in all cases the poisoned arrow
of the races that make use Of vegetabl
alkaloids are much moro to DO feare'
than those Of tho tribes that emplo,
poisons Of animal or microbian origin.
A "Sure Thing" Bet.
Thoca who ara misunderstanding