see, thearfore, that they be careful together to seek the knowledge of the truth, and so the kingdom of God, and to further ech other thearunto, and that not in anie indifferent manner, nor wth anie mean care, but in the first and principal place, and most earnestlie; that they be helpers and furtherors one to annother to go on patientlie in the profession of the trueth even under the cros, and persecution for the trueth when God shal cal thearunto, wout which helps and comforts al other comforts in outward things wil prove utterly unprofitable, and comfortles. And, thearfore, you that are the husband must examin if you be purposed and resolved to instruct your wife according to yor place, and be abled thearunto in som measure: yf yoe be willing and purposed to be helpful to her in resolving her doubts. 1. Cor. 14. 35, or at least to seek and procure an answer and resolucion for hir as them that ought to instruct hir, and to draw hir forwards to zeal and pietie, and to put hir back from hir back-slyding. You that are the wife must examin yf yo be willing and resolved to be a furtherer of your husband in religion according to yor place, willing and readie to receiv instruction from him, being enabled thereunto in sume measure, or, by his means, from others. If this be yor purpose and resolution to further ech other in pietie, zeal, religion, and godlines, then may ye be sure God hath caled you unto this estate, and wil bles you in al things Psal. 128. Otherwise, yf yor mariage be a mean (as it is to manie, as we read in the gospel Luk. 14, and as we have fearful examples, and daily complaints of the world of manie whose religion and zeal hath been marred by their marriages) to cool and quench yo' zeal in religion, and in godliness, then may ye be assured that yor marriage cannot be blessed, nor comfortable unto yoR. for this is one principal end of marriage, by the ordinance of God, that ye should be mutuallie helps ech to other, to cal upon ech other, and further one annother in pietie, and zeal, and godlines, and to strengthen one annother that when affliction and trouble shal com for profession of the truth, and for keeping a good conscience, which is a thing to be looked for, yo may by your mutual help be better able to bear and endure the same, and go forwards zealously in the profession of the truth without faynting.*

*The above document is transcribed from an authentie MS., and is believed to have been delivered by the venerable Arthur Hildersham. See Brook's Lives of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 376.

76

An Essay on the Oopas, or Poison Tree of Java, addressed to the Honourable Thomas Stamford Raffles, LieutenantGovernor. By Thomas Horsfield, M.D.

(Communicated to the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences by the Lieutenant Governor, as its President.)*

I HAVE proposed to myself in the following essay, to offer you a short account of the Oopas of Java. I feel some satisfaction in being able, at a time when every subject relating to this island has acquired a degree of interest, to furnish you with a faithful description of the tree, made by myself on the spot where it grows, and to relate its effects on the animal system by experiments personally, instituted and superintended; and I flatter myself that the practical information detailed in the following sheets, will refute the falsehoods that have been published concerning this subject, at the same time that it will remove the uncertainty in which it has been enveloped.

The literary and scientific world has in few instances been more grossly and impudently imposed upon, than by the account of the Pohon Oopas, published in Holland about the year 1780. The history and origin of this celebrated forgery still remains a mystery. Foersch, who put his name to the publication, certainly was (according to information I have received from creditable persons who have long resided on the island) a surgeon in the Dutch East India Company's service, about the time the account of the Oopas appeared. It would be in some degree interesting to become acquainted with his character. I have been led to suppose that his literary abilities were as mean as his contempt of truth was consummate. Having hastily picked up some vague information concerning the Oopas, he carried it to Europe, where his notes were arranged, doubtless by a different hand, in such a form, as, by their plausibility and appearance of truth, to be generally credited. It is in no small degree surprising that so palpable a falsehood should have been asserted with so much boldness, and have remained so long without refutation-or that a subject of a

* This very curious and valuable essay is reprinted here from the Transactions of the Batavian Society, printed at Java, and of which only a very few copies have reached this country;—at the particular request of some of our scientific correspondents, whose names, were we at liberty to mention them, would do honour to any work. But a small portion only of the paper has appeared in England, as a note to the interesting, but expensive history of Java, by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles.-EDIT.

nature so curious and so easily investigated, relating to its principal colony, should not have been inquired into and corrected by the naturalists of the mother country. To a person in any degree acquainted with the geography of the island, with the manners of the princes of Java, and their relation to the Dutch government at that period, or with its internal history during the last fifty years, the first glance at the account of Foersch must have evinced its falsity and misrepresentation. Long after it had been promulgated and published in the different public journals in most of the languages of Europe, a statement of facts, amounting to a refutation of this account, was published in one of the volumes of the Transactions of the Batavian Society, or in one of its prefatory addresses. But not having the work at hand, I cannot with certainty refer to it, nor shall I enter into a regular examination and refutation of the publication of Foersch, which is too contemptible to merit such attention.

But though the account just mentioned, in so far as relates to the situation of the Poison Tree, to its effects on the surrounding country, and to the application said to have been made of the Oopas on criminals in different parts of the island, as well as the description of the poisonous substance itself, and its mode of collecting, has been demonstrated to be an extravagant forgery,-the existence of a tree on Java, from whose sap a poison is prepared, equal in fatality, when thrown into the circulation, to the strongest animal poisons hitherto known, is a fact, which it is at present my object to establish and to illustrate.

The tree which produces this poison is called Antshar, and grows in the eastern extremity of the island. Before I proceed to the description of it, and of the effects produced by this poison, I must premise a few remarks on the history of its more accurate investigation, and on the circumstances which have lately contributed to bring a faithful account of this subject before the public. At the time I was prosecuting my inquiries into the botany and natural history of the island on behalf of the Dutch government, Mr. Leschenault de La Tour, a French naturalist, was making a private collection of objects of natural history for the governor of the north-east coast of Java. He shortly preceded me in my visit to the eastern districts of the island, and while I was on my route from Sourabaya in that direction, I received from him a communication containing an account of the Poison Tree, as he found it in the province of Blambangan.

I am induced to make this statement, in order to concede, as far as regards myself, to Mr. Leschenault de La Tour, in the fullest manner, the priority in observing the Oopas of Java. I do this to prevent any reflection, in case a claim to the discovery should be made at a future period: but I must be permitted to add, in justice to the series of inquiries which engaged me, and the manner in which they were carried on, that the knowledge of the existence of this tree was by no means uncommon or secret in the district of Blambangan, in the environs of Banyoo-wangee; that the commandant of the place, a man of some curiosity and inquiry, was acquainted with it, and that it could not (in all probability) have escaped the notice of a person, who made the vegetable productions an object of particular inquiry, and noted with minute attention every thing that related to their history and operation. It is in fact more surprising that a subject of so much notoriety in the district of Blambangan, and of so great celebrity and misrepresentation in every other part of the world, should so long have remained unexplored, than that it should finally have been noticed and described; and since my visit to that province, I have more than once remarked the coincidence which led two persons, of nations different from each other, and from that which has been long in possession of the island, who commenced their inquiries without any previous communication and with different objects in view, within the period of about six months, to visit and examine the Oopas Tree of Java.

His

The work of Rumphius contains a long account of the Oopas under the denomination of Arbor Toxicaria; the tree does not grow on Amboina, and his description was made from the information he obtained from Macassar. figure was drawn from a branch of that which was called the male tree, sent to him fron the same place, and established the identity of the Poison Tree of Macassar and the other eastern islands with the Antshar of Java. The account of this author is too extensive to be abridged in this place, it concentrates all that has till lately been published on this subject; but the relation is mixed with many assertions and remarks of a fabulous nature, and it is highly probable that it was consulted, in the fabrication of Foersch's story. It is, however, highly interesting, as it gives an account of the effects of the poisoned darts, formerly employed in the wars of the eastern islands, on the human system, and of the remedies by which their effect was counteracted and cured.

The simple sap of the Arbor Toxicaria (according to Rumphius) is harmless, and requires the addition of ginger and several substances analagous to it, such as Ledoory and Lampoegang, to render it active and mortal. In so far it agrees with the Antshar, which in its simple state is supposed to be inert, and before being used as a poison, is subjected to a preparation which will be described after the history of the tree. The same effervescence and boiling which occurs on the mixture of the substances added to the milky juice by the Javanese in Blambangan, has been observed in the preparation of the poison of Macassar, and in proportion to the violence of these effects the poison is supposed to be active. A dissertation has been published by Chrisp; Aejmlaeus at Upsal, which contains the substance of the account of Rumphius; an extract from it is given in Dr. Duncan's Medic. Comment. for the year 1790, 2d vol. 5th. decad. It appears from the account of Rumphius that this tree is also found in Borneo, Sumatra, and Bali.

Besides the true Poison Tree, the Oopas of the eastern islands and the Antshar of the Javanese, this island produces a shrub, which, as far as observations have hitherto been made, is peculiar to the same, and, by a different mode of preparation, furnishes a poison far exceeding the Oopas in violence-Its name is Tshettik, and its specific description will succeed to that of the Antshar-The genus has not yet been discovered or described.

Description of the Antshar.-The Antshar belongs to the twenty-first class of Linnæus, the Monoecia; the male and female flowers are produced in catkins (amenta) on the same branch, at no great distance from each other; the female flowers are in general above the male. The characters of the genus are-Male Flower: calix consisting of several scales, which are imbricate; corol none; stamens, filaments many, very short, covered by the scales of the receptacleanthers; the receptacle on which the filaments are placed, has a conical form, abrupt, somewhat rounded above. Female Flower: catkins ovate, calix consisting of a number of imbricate scales (generally more than in the male) containing one flower; coral none; pistil. germ single, ovate, erect, styles two, long, spreading, stigmas simple, acute; seedvessel, an oblong drupe, covered with the calix; seed, an ovate nut with one cell.

Specific description. The Antshar is one of the largest trees in the Forest of Java. The stem is cylindrical, perpendicular, and rises completely naked to the height of