The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-08-02

ted in PIants-Fishing With PoisOns
in India-Poisons and Hospitality in
the Orient.
It is sot so very many years ago
when the majority Of the afflicted Of
mankind turned instinetively to the
woods and fields for herbs and sim
pies to cure them of their ills. It did
not require much research to discover
that side by side with plants most
beneficial grew many deadly to man
and his lesser brothers, the animals.
1t is a question which character of
plants a primitive people awaited
themselves most of, for poisons were
long considered convenient and safe
means for disposing of an enemy, and
their use has not yet been abandoned
by more or less savage tribes.
To-day the vegetable kisgdom is still
largely depended upon for poisons and
palliatives medicines and pain killers,
real or imaginary, but the fact is gen.
rrally lost sight of in the bewildering
array of extracts and tinctures, chem
icals and narcotics displayed on the
apothecaries' shelves in lieu of the
bundles of herbs which used to hang
from the ceiling or rafters of the ear
lier shops.
A professor of the College of Phar-
macy recently reminded a number of
botanists and their friends in lecture
at the New York Botanical garden of
the vegetable poisons and their
strange uses. Although he talked for
an hour, he had to regret that the
time was too brief to more than touch
upon the subject. He began by point
ing out that some plants popularity re-
garded as poisonous are not so, but
act mechanically Such are some TO
the western grasses, which kill sheep
by their long, sharp, stout barbed
awns, which pierce the digestive or
gans and cause fatal Inflammation.
In order to be poisonous, the effects
in or upon the body must be chemi-
cal or molecular. Hence, it is not the
plant body which is poisonous, but
some chemical constituent within the
cells. Often these substances can be
seen with the microscope, in crystal
line form, in the dried plant tissues.
This is true of stryehnine in nux vom-
lea seeds. In other instances the poi
sons canot be seen, and are very diff
cult to separate and study.
Students are divided in opinion on
the question, why are poisons pres
emit in plants?" One answers that
they are not there for any purpose;
that they are waste processes, Ind are
poisonous because such substances
are usually so, and that the plant de-
posits them in leaves, outer bark,
fruits and seeds, until it can get red
of them by the falling off of these dec
iduous parts. .:
Another view is that during such
time as they remain they are of use
| to the plant, and it is for this reason
that they exist in it's body in the form
and with the properties they possess.
The percentage Of poison varies with
the stage and development of the
plant or with the season, and such va
riations usually coincide with the
need of greater or less protection by
| the plant, The. poison of the hem
bane, for instance, changes it's loca-
ton from one part Of the plant to an
other, according to its special need Of
such safeguard
Other substances harmless to man
are deadly to vegetable germs which
cause the plant to decay. They are
usually produced when needed, and
many of them are never brought forth
otherwise. The important medicinal
substance, copaiba, is stored in the
| tree trunks as soon as decay proucces
a cavity. It tends to check decay, but
| if powerless to prevent it continues to
increase in quantity. Substances used
| by plants for antiseptic purposes have
| been utilized by man for the same
| purpose, while substances poisonous in
large amounts have been found to
bring about improvement in diseased
conditions. in modified and reduced
| doses.
| Catching fish with poison is so COM
mon, among the Indians at least, that
| the fruit of the Cocculus indicus, the
substance oftenest used, is best known
as fish berry. It's poisonous constitu-
ent is picroform, which acts in many
ways like strychnine, but does not af-
feet the wholesomefess of the fish for
food. In tropical America many vege-
table substances containing sapronin
and tanni are used for the same pur-
pose. The saproin, acts somewhat like
strychnine, while the tannin is said to
act by combining with the free oxygen
in the water, compelling the fishes to
come to the surface for oxygen. In
all these cases the fish are merely in
toxicated and caused to founder help
lessly to the surface, where they are
easily caught. Humanity, as a whole,
has come to look upon poison as too
| cowardly and ignoble weapon for any
class to employ, so convicted criminals
can now eat their meals with safety
and ones enemies feed equally secure
at tabl. In India, however, poison *
still an approved weapon Of revenge
and the cattle of the enemy are the
most common victims.
For such work a seed resembling a
small pea, scarlet. with a black eye
is usually employed. Locally it is