The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1905-08-23
VEGETABLE POISONS.
THEIR USES AND THE PLANTS FROM
WHICH THEY ARE OBTAINED.
Theories as TO why POisons Are Sc
GREETED In PIants-Fishing With Pol
sons In India-POisons ana HOspl-
tnIity In the Orient.

mankind turned instinctively TO the
woods and fields for herbs and simpleS
TO cure them of their ills. 1t did not
require much research to discover that
side by side with plants most bene-
fetal grew many deadly to man and his
lesser brothers, the animals. 1t is
question which character of plants q
primitive people availed themselves
most of, for poisons were long consid-
cred convenient and safe means for
disposing of an enemy, and their use
has not yet been abandoned by more
or less savage tribes.
Today the vegetable kingdom is still
largely depended upon for poisons and
paliatives. medicines and pain killers,
real or imaginary, but the fact is gen
orally 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 earlier
shops.
A professor of the College of Phar-
macy recently reminded number or
botanists and their friends in lee
ture at the New York Botanical gar
den 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 pointing
out that some plants popularity re-
garded as poisons are not so, but act
mechanically. Such are some of the
western grasses, which kill sheep by
their long, sharp, stout barbed awns,
which pierce the digestive organs ana
cause fatal inflammation.
In order to be poisonous, the effects
in or upon the body must be chemical
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 strychnine in nux vom-
lea seeds. In other instances the poi
sons cannot be seen, and are very diff
hcult to separate and study.
Students are divided i'm opinion on
the question, why are poisons pres
ent in plants" One answers that they
are not there for any purpose; that
they are waste processes, and 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 rid
of them by the falling off Of these
deciduous 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 its body in the form
and with tie properties they possess.
The percentage of poison varies with
the stage and development of the plant
or with the season, and such varia-
tons usually coincide with the need Of
greater or less protection by the plant.
The poison of the henbane, for i'll
stance, changes its location from one
part of the plant to another, accord
ing to its special need of such safe
guard.
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 produces
"a cavity. 1t tends to check decay, but
If powerless TO prevent 1t continues
to increase in quantity. Substances
used by plants for anuseptic purposes
have been utilized by man for the
same purpose, while substances poison
Gus in large amounts have been found
to- bring about improvement in dis
eased conditions in modified and re-
duced 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. Its poisonous constitu-
ent is picrotorin, which acts in many
ways like s'rychnine, but does not af-
feet the wholesOmeness of the hsh for
food. In tropical America many veg
etabe substances containing sapronln
and tannin are used for the same pur-
pose. The sapronin 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
lessy to the surface, where they are
easily caught. Humanity, as a whole,
has come to look upon poison as a too
cowardly and ignoble weapon for any
class to employ, so convicted criminals
can now eat their meals with safety
and ones enemies feel equally secure
at table In India, however, poison is
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 black eye, is
usually employed. Locally it Is called
love pea, or jequirity. Properly it is
known as abrus. The seed is very
poisonous If eaten, and much more so
If it gets into the blood through a
wound Its active constituent is abb
sin, mixture of two toxalbumens,
very similar to snake venom and much
mono nniOopOnS Tho natives grind tlQ