The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-14
POISONOUS WEAPONS.
How Barbarous Nations Make Sure
of Dealing Death.

of Dealing Death.
La Nature,
From the age of stone up to the time
when the art Of killing ones neighbor led
to the discovery of powder and firearms,
primitive people, owing to the INSULT
cheney OF their weapons to cause prompt
death, have invited means of giving them
poisonous qualities. Poisoned weapons,
whether they are arrows, knives, lances
or what not, may get their fatal proper
ties from either vegetable or animal
po1sons. The South American Indians
use curare, the natives Of India, Indo-
China, Borneo and the Moluscas, en-
ploy Cor, rather, did employ the upas to
poison their weapons; the negroes of
the Soudan and the Congo still make use
of a poison extracted from different va
rieties of strophanthis called m'boumou,
or inc, according to the regions where 1t
is employed; the people of South Africa,
the Hottentots. the bushmen, the KAT
frs and the Akkas poison their arrows
with the venom Of divers serpents, the
cobra de capello among othersi 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 re-
suits in speedy death; in Oceanica the
natives of New Caledonia, the Hebrides
niles lockjaw by soaking their arrows in
marshes containing large quantities OF
the bacillus Of 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 character
istic alkaloids of plants, which serve as
the basis Of a deadly poisonous mixture.
~ 11afr
principal elements plants whose species
vary with the tribe, and which all belong
to the strychnine family. The three last
named poisons, except that Of the South
African negroes, are Of microbial origin.
What are the value, duration and &C
tivity of these poisons? Curare keeps
indefinitely In 1757, in the course of ex-
periments in physiology made In France
with curarfzed arrows brought in 175z
from equatorial American by La Con-
damine, a fowl scratched with one OF
these arrows died in seven minutes
among the Outiteto Indians Jumps OF
curare, handed down from father to son
have preserved all their poisonous &C.
tivlty, although covered with mold. The
same may be said for the upas, which
kept in little sections of bamboo fol
seven or eight years, retains the same
active qualities as when freshly pre-
pared. Many weapons, even those o.
steel, always kept their poisonous prop.
critics. The black races that use Inc
claim that it will keep only a short time
before it spoils. Now Inc. which Is ar
equeous maceraion Of strophanthus
seeds, to which is added the juice of G
fig or of a euphorbia, and generally also
vipers' venom, becomes covered with
mold at the end of few weeks, bui
Notwithstanding 1t has preserved al
Its toxic propertiesl guinea pigs have
been killed in few minutes by being
scratched with arrows whose point had
nodded In fact the vegetable poisoni
used by primitive peoples for the arrow.
keep indefinitely and always make effect
I've weapons.
This is not the case with poison Of
animal or microbian origin AS we have
seen above, the bushmen, the Kaf1r!
and the Akkas poison the points of theil
arrows with serpent venom. especially
that of the cobra, at the end Of TIVE
or three weeks their arms have lost al
harmful quality. This is due to sin
gle cause, the venom Of snakes. which
Is preserved Indefinitely in alcohol, be
comes covered in air with peculiar
mold which has not been studied hith