Such are the names given by the natives of the Molucca Islands and in the
Indian Archipelago to a deadly poison which is used to impregnate the
heads of their arrows. The tree from which it is extracted is named _Bohou
Upas_, _Boa Upas_, and _Pohou Antiar_. Various accounts of its deleterious
nature have been given by ancient travellers. Cleyer and Spielman
described it upwards of a century back, and state that no antidote to its
dreadful action is known, though vomiting, produced by the most disgusting
means, was considered the only method of arresting its dire effects.
Spielman asserts that the land for several miles round these trees is
desolate and barren, for no plant can grow under their influence. The
poison, he states, flows in a milky form from the tree, and no one can
approach it at this period, as one drop of the fatal juice falling upon
the face or hands produces instant stiffness of every limb, followed by
rapid death; it is therefore obtained at the end of long bamboo canes,
armed with a pointed tube to receive it when plunged into the bark.
Rumphius confirms in a great measure the above statements, and describes
the tree, which he divides into male and female: he adds, that they only
grow in the island of Celebes, and that all around the dreaded spot is
desert and consumed. A more recent Dutch traveller, Foersech or Fooerch,
did not let so fertile a subject escape, and has cultivated most
industriously this dreary desert in the following account.
Sterility prevails for upwards of ten miles round this dreadful tree on
the part of the island of Java where it grows. When criminals are
sentenced to death, they are offered a free pardon if they consent to seek
a small boxful of this valuable yet terrific poison. They are first sent
to the dwelling of a priest who resides at a safe distance from the spot;
there they arrive, accompanied by their disconsolate and wailing families.
They remain with this holy man for a few days, during which he affords
them both spiritual comfort and good advice; the latter urging the
precaution not to set out until the wind blows in such a direction as to
waft from them the floating emanations. On their departure on this dreaded
expedition he gives them a small box of silver or tortoise-shell, covers
their head and face with a leathern hood with glass eyes, and protects
their hands with a thick pair of gloves of the same material. He then
accompanies them about two miles on their sad journey, and then he
describes the hellish spot where this treasure is to be found as minutely
as any one can describe what he has not seen; then, giving the poor
pilgrim his blessing, he departs on his return. This worthy man informed
our traveller that, during thirty years which he had held that enviable
situation, he had sent off no less than seven hundred criminals, of whom
only twenty-two returned: and he confirmed the statement by exhibiting a
list bearing their names and the offences for which they had been tried.
Mynheer Foersech further assures his gentle readers that he witnessed
several of these expeditions, and entreated the culprits to bring him some
branches of the tree; but two withered leaves were the only specimens he
could obtain from the solitary wretch who had the good fortune to escape,
and who described the tree as growing on the borders of a rivulet, being
of moderate height, and surrounded by a cluster of young ones. The ground
around them was of a brown sandy nature, and strewed with the remains of
human victims. He also clearly ascertained that no living creature can
exist within fifteen miles of the spot. The streams that flow near it
yield no fish, and the birds that fly over it fall to the ground; several
of the latter were occasionally brought to the priest,--whether he ate
them, or not, the Dutchman does not inform us. Amongst various offenders
doomed to death by this poison he relates the case of thirteen ladies,
who, for the crime of infidelity, were inoculated in the bosom with the
point of a kritz or Malayan dagger dipped in the upas; and in sixteen
minutes they had ceased to live. By recent experiments upon animals this
part of his narration may be credited; but, in regard to the other
account, we must apply to it the French saying, "_Il vaut mieux y croire
que d'y aller voir_." Indeed the whole of Foersech's account is justly
considered a fiction.
However, some French travellers thought otherwise; and Mr. Deschamps,
physician and naturalist attached to the expedition of Mr.
D'Entrecasteaux, when in Java, ascertained that this wonderful tree was
not uncommon in the forests of the country, nor was the approach to it in
the slightest degree apprehended. The juice procured by incisions in the
bark was called by the natives _upas_ or _oupas_, and was of so active a
nature that it caused immediate death when thrown into the circulation.
The Malays mixed it with various other ingredients more especially galanga
and garlic, when they employed it. The Javanese only impregnated their
arrows with it for the chase: a proof that they did not consider it as
affecting the system of the slain animal. Most probably Foersech's priest
was aware of this circumstance when he accepted from the privileged
malefactors the game killed by the tree they had sought.
This tree, according to Deschamps, is named in the country, _pohou
antiar_; it frequently rises to the height of thirty or forty feet. When
one of its branches is broken, or its bark incised, a milky juice exudes,
which becomes inspissated when in contact with the atmosphere. In
appearance this tree bears some resemblance to our elm. Mr. Deschamps
confirms the relation of Rumphius, who stated that the Dutch, in their
wars with the natives, were obliged to wear thick buff cuirasses to
protect them against their poisoned missiles, the wounds of which were
inevitably fatal.
Further information relative to the upas has been afforded by the
ingenious Mr. Leschenault, who, during his residence in Java, procured two
specimens of the poisonous substance obtained in Java, and of that brought
from the islands of Borneo and Macassar. In Borneo, the mountaineers of
the interior, who are called _Orang-Daias_, collect it, and keep its
preparation a profound secret. They carry it carefully wrapped up in
palm-leaves. Their hunting arrows have heads spear-pointed, and
impregnated with this substance; those that are prepared for war bear a
shark's tooth fixed in a brass socket, and merely attached to the shaft by
the gum resin of the ipo; the barbed point remaining rankling in the wound
it has inflicted, the gum dissolves, and speedily brings on death. Mr.
Leschenault tried these arrows on dogs and other animals, and they expired
shortly after in horrible convulsions.
But the latest account of this celebrated tree is given by Dr. Horsfield
who was in Java during its occupation by our troops. He informs us that
although the Dutch surgeon Foersech's account must have been a
fabrication, yet there did exist a tree called the _Anchar_ from the sap
of which the natives prepared a fatal poison. The tree belongs to the 21st
class of Linnaeus, the _Monaecia_. The male and female flowers are produced
on the same branch at no great distance from each other, the females being
in general above the males. The seed-vessel is an oblong drupe, covered
with the calyx; the seed an ovate nut with cells. The top of the stem
sends off a few stout branches, which spreading nearly horizontally with
several irregular curves, divide into smaller branches, and form a
hemispherical, not very regular crown. The stem is cylindrical,
perpendicular, and rises completely naked to the height of sixty or
seventy, and even eighty feet. Near the surface of the ground it spreads
obliquely like many of our large forest trees. The bark is whitish,
slightly bursting into longitudinal furrows. Near the ground this bark is,
in old trees, more than half an inch thick, and when wounded yields
copiously the milky juice from which the poison is prepared. This juice is
yellowish, frothy, and becomes brown when exposed to the air.
In making these researches Dr. Horsfield had some difficulty with the
native labourers, who feared a contagious eruption, but nothing more. The
Doctor further informs us that it is fatal to animals,--destroying dogs in
an hour, mice in ten minutes, monkeys in seven, and cats in fifteen, while
a buffalo subjected to the experiment was two hours and ten minutes dying.
The natives of Macassar also call this venomous production _ipo_. They
have two varieties of the tree, as in Java; the one called _upas antiar_,
and the other, much more violent and prompt in its action, _upas tieute_
In the preparation of the poison for use much mystery is observed by the
natives, and various ingredients are mixed up with it; but as they are
known to be harmless, such as onion and garlic juice, pepper, ginger,
galanga, they are most probably employed to deceive the curious who might
wish to ascertain the nature of this deadly composition.
Mr. Leschenault having brought home a small quantity of this poison, it
was tried by Messrs. Delile and Magendie in several experiments, when it
was found to act more or less violently, according to the age and size of
the individual, or the quantity of the upas. One grain and a half
inoculated in a young dog killed it in four minutes, only producing one
convulsive fit. In a dog weighing fourteen pounds, half a grain of upas
occasioned death at the expiration of one hour and fifty-seven minutes,
during which the animal experienced several violent convulsions. A few
drops of diluted upas, injected in the chest of a dog, weighing twenty
pounds, occasioned a lock-jaw, which destroyed him in a minute and a half.
Eight drops injected in the jugular vein of a horse produced immediate
tetanus and speedy death. For further information regarding these cruel
experiments we must refer to the experimenter's publication. It appears,
however, that the power of this venomous substance is so intense that time
does not weaken it; for the upas employed in these experiments had been
collected and kept for upwards of seven years, when its effects were as
prompt as when tried in a recent state. The natives of Java consider
sea-salt as the best antidote, but Mr. Delile found it quite inert:
various experiments induced him to think that in these cases death is
produced by asphyxia; and he considers the means employed to restore
suspended animation in persons supposed to have been drowned, as the most
likely to save the life of individuals who might be wounded with this
substance. The rapidity with which poisonous substances are absorbed in
the system is truly terrific, more especially in such as are of a narcotic
nature. The latter act by abolishing all nervous energies, but when
applied locally their effects are also local, as is shown by the following
experiments of Mueller:
"I held the nerve of a frog's leg which was separated from the body, in a
watery solution of opium for a short time, and that portion of the nerve
lost its irritability, i.e. its property of exciting twitchings of the leg
when it was irritated; but below the part that the poison had touched the
nerve still retained this function."
It is therefore evident that before narcotic poisons can exert a general
influence they must be carried into the circulation. Duprey and Brachet,
two French physiologists, have sought to prove that animals cannot be
destroyed by narcotic poisons, introduced in the stomach, if the _nervus
vagus_ has been divided on both sides; at least, that they do not die so
soon. However, Wernscheidt, in thirty experiments on mammalia, could not
perceive this difference, provided the animals were of the same size and
species.
Prussic acid exerts its influence so rapidly that it cannot be supposed to
have been thrown into the circulation. The spirituous solution of the
extract of nux vomica introduced in the mouth of a rabbit, produces
immediate death, whereas when applied to any nerve distant from the brain
it produces no general symptoms.
This rapid effect of prussic acid is supposed to arise from its great
volatility and powers of expansion, by which it is diffused more quickly
through the circulation than the blood. According to Schrader one drop of
this substance introduced in the bill of a bird killed it in four or five
minutes. Hydrocyanic acid gas mixed with atmospheric air has when inhaled
destroyed dogs, cats, rabbits, and various birds, in from two to ten
seconds. Magendie found that the introduction of one drop of the acid in
the jugular vein caused instantaneous death; a glass tube dipped in this
perilous substance applied to the tongue of a dog, produced a similar
effect, which was also the result when applied to the eye.
It is not generally known that tobacco and its preparations are deadly
poisons, one drop of oil of tobacco introduced in the mouth of a dog
produced violent convulsions with hurried breathing; a quarter of an hour
after, the unfortunate animal seemed to be recovered, when the
introduction of another drop killed it in two minutes. M'Cartney and
Orfila obtained similar results, though no such effects were produced when
it was applied to a nerve or the surface of the brain.
The French poet Santeuil died from having drank wine in a glass containing
some snuff. In all cases of death produced by this substance the lungs are
found dense and livid.
It is not only in the upas that the Indians seek the means of poisoning
their missiles. In America they employ the _Ticronas_ a juice extracted
from various plants, and the preparation of which, transmitted from one
generation to another is considered a valuable secret. La Condamine
asserts that its mere odour is sufficient to destroy the criminals doomed
to smell it, but Fontana has found by many experiments that this assertion
was made upon report, which travellers too frequently rely upon to save
themselves the trouble of investigation. Arrows saturated with this
poison, become more active after having been dipped in hot water.
The Indians of Guiana dip their arrows in the juice of the _Woorara_, and
the _Curara_, which also occasions rapid death and decomposition of the
lungs. Humboldt informs us that the _Curara_ is obtained from the bark of
a tree called _Vejuco_ de _Mavacure_; it is inspissated over a slow fire
and then mixed with a gum drawn from the _Kiracagnero_. The Abbe Salvador
Gilii tells us in his history of America, that he has seen the strongest
animals succumb instantly when thus wounded, but the poison does not
produce any effect on their meat.