When the weather is dry it carries death on the wing of the arrow, but if it should be wet, or damp, the poison becomes moist and remains on the surface of the wound (where it can be easily rubbed off) instead of penetrating with the dart into the object aimed at.
And this was the disillusion of one who wanted to try its effects on a dog. The poor beast howled with the pain but did not present any symptom of poisoning.
Science alone can pronounce accurately upon the toxical qualities of the legop and I am always ready to assist it with my modest experience.
Wishing to solve every doubt and also to find out an antidote to this poison I sacrificed many innocent creatures, but I will relate the pitiful end of only two.
I selected a fine fowl full of healthy vigour and taking one of these poisoned darts I made a wound of not more than a half an inch long upon the upper part of its leg.
For a minute after it moved about slowly without even noticing the wound, then it stopped as if overcome by a strange sense of stupor, but soon began to peck the ground.
Two minutes and a half later it opened and shut its beak and let its tail and wings fall limply on the ground. Another half a minute and with its legs bent under, as though sitting, it sought to raise and shake its drooping head. For an-instant it succeeded but the poor member wagged without energy (as happens to us when in travelling we get sleepy but have no place to repose ourselves) whilst its eyes now shut, and now wide open wore an expression of unconsciousness.
About the fourth minute the animal was seized with violent convulsions and at the fifth it was quite dead.
I made the same trial upon a middle-sized dog, wounding this also upon a leg in order not to touch a vital part.