Wanderings in South America, the north-west of the United States and the Antilles, 1812, 1816, 1820 and 1824, with instructions for the perfect preservation of birds, etc., for cabinets of natural history / by Charles Waterton, Esq.

  • Waterton, Charles, 1782-1865.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Wanderings in South America, the north-west of the United States and the Antilles, 1812, 1816, 1820 and 1824, with instructions for the perfect preservation of birds, etc., for cabinets of natural history / by Charles Waterton, Esq. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    almost immediately. Not wishing to dispute this appa- rently satisfactory information, the subject was dropped. However, about an hour after, having purposely asked him in what part of the body the said Indian was wounded, he answered, without hesitation, that the arrow entered betwixt his shoulders, and passed quite through his heart. Was it the weapon, or the strength of the poison, that brought on immediate dissolution in this case ? Of course, the weapon. j^The second have been misled by disappointment, caused by neglect in keeping the poisoned arrows, or by not knowing how to use them, or by trying inferior poison. If the arrows are not kept dry, the poison loses its strength, and in wet or damp weather it turns mouldy, and becomes quite soft. In shooting an arrow in this state, upon examining the place where it has entered, it will be observed that, though the arrow has penetrated deep into the flesh, still by far the greatest part of the poison has shrunk back, and thus, instead of entering with the arrow, it has remained collected at the mouth of the wound. In this case the arrow might as well have not been poisoned. Probably, it was to this that a gen- tleman, some time ago, owed his disappointment, when he tried the poison on a horse in the town of Stabroek, the capital of Demerara ; the horse never betrayed the least symptom of being affected by it. Wishful to obtain the best information concerning this