Part 10 (1/2)

Ampadu-bruang or bear's gall (brucea, foliis serratis) is the lussa raja of Rumphius, excessively bitter, and applied in infusion for the relief of disorders in the bowels.

Kabu (unknown). Of this the bark and root are used for curing the kudis or itch, by rubbing it on the part affected.

Marampuyan (a new genus). The young shoots of this, being supposed to have a refres.h.i.+ng and corroborating quality, are rubbed over the body and limbs after violent fatigue.

Mali-mali (unknown). The leaf of this plant, which bears a white umbellated blossom, is applied to reduce swellings.

Chapo (Conyza balsamifera) resembles the sage (salvia) in colour, smell, taste, and qualities, but grows to the height of six feet, has a long jagged leaf, and its blossom resembles that of groundsel.

Murribungan (unknown). The leaves of this climber are broad, roundish, and smooth. The juice of its stalk is applied to heal excoriations of the tongue.

Ampi-ampi (unknown). A climbing plant with leaves resembling the box, and a small flosculous blossom. It is used as a medicine in fevers.

Kadu (species of piper), with a leaf in shape and taste resembling the betel. It is burned to preserve children newly born from the influence of evil spirits.

Gumbai (unknown). A shrub with monopetalous, stillated, purple flowers, growing in tufts. The leaves are used in disorders of the bowels.

Tabulan bukan (unknown). A shrub bearing a semiflosculous blossom, applied to the cure of sore eyes.

Kachang prang (Dolichos ensiformis). The pods of this are of a huge size, and the beans, of a fine crimson colour, are used in diseases of the pleura.

Sipit, a species of fig, with a large oval leaf, rough to the touch, and rigid. An infusion of it is swallowed in iliac affections.

Daun se-dingin (Cotyledon laciniata). This leaf, as the name denotes, is of a remarkably cold quality. It is applied to the forehead to cure the headache, and sometimes to the body in fevers.

Long pepper (Piper longum) is used medicinally.

Turmeric, also, mixed with rice reduced to powder and then formed into a paste, is much used outwardly in cases of colds and pains in the bones; and chunam or quick-lime is likewise commonly rubbed on parts of the body affected with pain.

In the cure of the kura or boss (from the Portuguese word baco), which is an obstruction of the spleen, forming a hard lump in the upper part of the abdomen, a decoction of the following plants is externally applied: sipit tunggul; madang tandok (a new genus, highly aromatic); ati ayer (species of arum ?) tapa besi; paku tiong (a most beautiful fern, with leaves like a palm; genus not ascertained); tapa badak (a variety of callicarpa); laban (Vitex altissima); pisang ruko (species of musa); and paku lamiding (species of polypodium ?); together with a juice extracted from the akar malabatei (unknown).

In the cure of the kurap, tetter or ringworm, they apply the daun galinggan (Ca.s.sia quadri-alata) a herbaceous shrub with large pinnated leaves and a yellow blossom. In the more inveterate cases, barangan (coloured a.r.s.enic, or orpiment), a strong poison, is rubbed in.

The milky exsudation from the sudu-sudu (Euphorbia neriifolia) is valued highly by the natives for medicinal purposes. Its leaves eaten by sheep or goats occasion present death.

UPAS TREE.

On the subject of the puhn upas or poison tree (Arbor toxicaria, R.), of whose properties so extraordinary an account was published in the London Magazine for September 1785 by Mr. N.P. Foersch, a surgeon in the service of the Dutch East India Company, at that time in England, I shall quote the observations of the late ingenious Mr. Charles Campbell, of the medical establishment at Fort Marlborough. ”On my travels in the country at the back of Bencoolen I found the upas tree, about which so many ridiculous tales have been told. Some seeds must by this time have arrived in London in a packet I forwarded to Mr. Aiton at Kew. The poison is certainly deleterious, but not in so terrific a degree as has been represented. Some of it in an insp.i.s.sated state you will receive by an early opportunity. As to the tree itself, it does no manner of injury to those around it. I have sat under its shade, and seen birds alight upon its branches; and as to the story of gra.s.s not growing beneath it, everyone who has been in a forest must know that gra.s.s is not found in such situations.” For further particulars respecting this poison-tree, which has excited so much interest, the reader is referred to Sir George Staunton's Account of Lord Macartney's Emba.s.sy Volume 1 page 272; to Pennant's Outlines of the Globe Volume 4 page 42, where he will find a copy of Foersch's original narrative; and to a Dissertation by Professor C.P. Thunberg upon the Arbor toxicaria Maca.s.sariensis, in the Mem. of the Upsal Acad. for 1788. The information given by Rumphius upon the subject of the Ipo or Upas, in his Herb. Amboin. Volume 2 page 263, will also be perused with satisfaction.* It is evident that some of the exaggerated stories related to him by the people of Celebes (the plant not being indigenous at Amboina) suggested to Mr. Foersch, the fables with which he amused the world.

(*Footnote. Since the above was written I have seen the Dissertation sur les Effets d'un Poison de Java, appele Upas tieute, etc.; presentee a la Faculte de Medicine de Paris le 6 Juillet 1809, par M. Alire Raffeneau-Delile, in which he details a set of curious and interesting experiments on this very active poison, made with specimens brought from Java by M. Leschenault; and also a second dissertation, in ma.n.u.script (presented to the Royal Society), upon the effects of similar experiments made with what he terms the upas antiar. The former he states to be a decoction or extract from the bark of the roots of a climbing plant of the genus strychnos, called tieute by the natives of Java; and the latter to be a milky, bitter, and yellowish juice, running from an incision in the bark of a large tree (new genus) called antiar; the word upas meaning, as M. Leschenault understands, vegetable poison of any kind. A small branch of the puhn upas, with some of the poisonous gum, was brought to England in 1806 by Dr. Roxburgh, who informed Mr. Lambert that a plant of it which he had procured from Sumatra was growing rapidly in the Company's Botanic Garden at Calcutta. A specimen of the gum, by the favour of the latter gentleman, is in my possession.)

CHAPTER 6.

BEASTS.

REPTILES.

FISH.

BIRDS.

INSECTS.