XXVIII.—The Poisoned Arrows of the Abors and Mishmis of North-East India, and the Composition and Action of their Poisons.

Abstract

Summary1. The active ingredient of the poison of the Abor and Mishmi poisoned arrows is, in some of them, aconite, and, in others, croton oil. The former, apparently, is generally used by the Mishmis, and the latter by the Abors.2. Although sufficient botanical materials have not been obtained to identify the species of aconite, the nature of the pharmacological action suggests that the species is one containing relatively more pseudo-aconitine than aconitine and, therefore, more resembling Aconitum ferox and A. heterophylloides than A. Napellus.3. The arrow-poisons containing aconite were found to be much more lethal in warm-blooded animals than those containing croton; but the aconite-poisoned arrows that were examined carried usually too little aconite for a single arrow to produce death in man, even if the whole of the poison should be quickly absorbed.4. The arrow-poisons containing croton, on the other hand, were found to be incapable of producing death in warm-blooded animals by the absorption of the poison into the circulation, and could do so only tardily by rendering the animal more susceptible to septicæmia, following inflammatory and even necrotic changes in the tissues into which the poison had been inserted.5. While thus relatively inert in warm-blooded animals, and presumably, therefore, in man, the croton arrow-poison is extremely toxic in cold-blooded animals, being for them one of the most lethal of poisons, readily absorbable into the circulation and producing irritation and hæmorrhages in parts remote from the locality of insertion, and the latter, especially, in the alimentary canal. Remote effects may be produced even without any obvious evidence of local irritation in the place into which the poison has been inserted. These remarkable peculiarities in the action of the Government of India arrow-poison are reproduced by its ether extract and by the oil of Croton Tiglium.6. Excepting failure to cause general action in warm-blooded animals, it is interesting to note that in many of their important effects, croton arrow-poisons as well as croton oil reproduce the effects of viperine venoms.