OCR Text |
Show fying by heat, like qther refins. It is collected with the grcatell: caution, the perfon having his head, hands, and feet carefully covered with linen, that his whole body may be protetled from the vapour as well as from the droppings of the tree. No one can approach fo near as to gather the juice, hence they fupply bamboos, pointed like a fpear, which they thrufl: obliquely, with great force, into the trunk; the juice oozing out gradually fills the upper joint; and the nearer the ro0t the wound is made, the more virulent the poifon is fuppofed to be. Sometimes upwards of twenty reeds are left fixed in the tree for three or four days, that the juice may collect: and harden in the cavities; the upper joint of the reed is then cut off from the remaining part, the concreted juice is formed into globules or flicks, and is kept in hollow reeds, carefully clofed, and wrapped in tenfold linen. It is every week taken out to prevent its becoming mouldy, which fpoils it. The deleterious quality appears to be volatile, flnce it lofes much of its power in the time vf one year, and in a few years become totally effete. The vapour of the tree produces numbnefs ami fpafms of the limbs, and if any one flands under it bare-headed, he lofes his hair; and if a drop falls on him, violent inflammation enfues. Birds which fit on the branches a ihort time, drop down dead, and can even with difficulty fly over it; and not only no vegetables grow under it, but the ground is barren a fione cafi around it. · A perfon wounded by a dart poifoned with this juice feels immediately a fenfe of heat over his whole body, with great vertigo, to which death foon fucceerls. A perfon wounded with the Java poifon was afFeCl:ed with tremor of the limbs, and fl:arting of the tendons in five minutes, and died in lefs than fix teen minutes, with marks of great nnxicty; the corpfe, in a few hours, was covered with petechial fpots, the face became tumid and lead-coloured, and the white part of the eye became yellow. The natives try the firength of their poifon by a fingular teft; fome of the expreffed juice of the root of Amomum Zerumbet is mixed with a little water, and a bit of the poifonous gum or refin is dropped into it; an effervefcence infiantly takes place, by the violence of which they judge of the fl:rength of the poifon.-What air can be extricated during this effervefcence ?-This experiment is faid to be dang..:rous to the operator. As the juice is capable of being diffolved in arrack, and is thence fuppofed to be principally of a refinous nature, the Profeflor does not credit that fountains have been poifoned with it. This poifon has been employed as a punilhment for capital crimes in Macaffer and other iflands; in thofe cafes fome experiments have been made, and when a finger only had been wounded with a dart, the immediate amputation of it did not fave the criminal from death. The poifon from what has been termed the female tree, is Iefs deleterious than the other, and has been ufed chiefly in hunting; the carcafes of animals thus defiruyed are eaten with impunity. The poifon-juice is faid to be tlfed externally as a remedy againfl other poifons, in the form of a plafl:er ; alfo to be ufed internally for the fame purpofe; t 193 and is believed to alleviate the pain, am! extract the poifo f . than any other application. n ° venomous mfetl:s fooner The author concludes that thefe accounts 11ave b · een exaggerated by M h d pnefls, who have perfuaded their followers that the P o I t a orne an noxious tree as a punifhment for the fins of mankind. r p le Mahomet planted this An abfl:ratl: of this Differtation of C. AeJ·mela::us is given J·n D D • M . C ommentan·e s lrO r t h e Year 1790, Dccad. r. uncan s ed1cal 2d. Vol. v. Fairy-:fcene from Mr. Mundy's Needwood Forefl. Referred to hz Canto IV. I. 3S· HERE, feen of old, the elfin race With fprightly vigils mark'd the place; Their gay proceffions chann'd the fight, Gilding the lucid noon of night ; Or, when obfcure the midnight hour, With glow-worm !anthems hung the bower, -Hark !-the foft lute !-along the green Moves with majefiic ll:ep the Q_uEEN! Attendant Fays around her throng, And trace the dance or raife the fong; Or touch the fhrill reed, as they trip, With finger light and ruby lip. High, on her brow fi1blime, is borne One fcarlet woodbine's tremulous hom ; A gaudy Bce-bird's * triple plume Sheds on her neck its waving gloom; With filvery goffamer entwin'd Stream the luxuriant locks behind. Thin folds of tangled network break In airy waves a down her neck ;Warp'd in his loom, the fpider fprcad The far-diverging rays of thread, Then round and round with fhuttle fine In wrought the undulating line;Scarce hides the woof her bofom's fnow, One pearly nipple peeps below. ·• The humming-bird. Cc |