Poisoned Arrow of New Hebrides
I
* • M. Dantec has examined and experimented with the arrow poison used by the natives of the New Hebrides. He finds that it contains neither vegetable poison nor serpent virus, but consists of earth impregnated with vegetable matter taken from marshy places, and contains Pasteurs Vibrion septique, or bacillus of malignant ; oedema, and also the bacillus of teta- j nus. If the arrows have been kept a j long time, or have been much exposed to the sun, the Vibrion septique may have been destroyed ; the danger then is from tetanus. When the arrows have been freshly prepared, and the Vibrion septique is still alive, a wound from them causes death in a guinea pig from septiwemia in from 12 to 15 hours ; tetanus, which takes longer to develop, does not under those circumstances show itself. It is interesting, says the Lancet, to remark that the horse is unknown in these islands, consequently the theory of the equine origin of tetanus -would seem to be negatived by these researches.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/FS18930103.2.22
Bibliographic details
Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 83, 3 January 1893, Page 4
Word Count
174Poisoned Arrow of New Hebrides Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 83, 3 January 1893, Page 4
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