Curiosities of Medical Experience

by J. G. Millingen

POISON OF THE UPAS, OR IPO.

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 Foœrch, 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 Linnæus, the Monæcia. 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.