head pupils contracted,* pulse quick and small, countenance depicting alarm and horror. The stomach-pump and emetics failed to give relief, and he expired in about an hour and a half;-extreme collapse of the features, dilatation of the pupils, coldness of the extremities, and feebleness of pulse having supervened an hour previously.

Mr. Brett introduced about half a drachm of Jhur into an incision, an inch long, over the gluteus maximus of a dog, and, in a few minutes, the same quantity was placed in an old wound. Nothing apparently occurred during the first hour and a half; after which the animal was seized with violent spasmodic action of the stomach, ejecting nearly its entire contents. It appeared to suffer great agony in its abdominal viscera, twisting its body in every direction, and foaming at the mouth; pupils contracted, pulse quick and small; expired after a collapse of 15 minutes. The liver was found highly inflamed (?), as was also the Cardiac half of the internal membrane of the stomach, and the peritoneum covering the liver, stomach, and large and small omenta.

Under the name of Kalkoote, Baboo Issurchunder Gangooly, at present Sub-Assistant Surgeon of Howrah, describes a root having a black bark covering a white substance within. These roots, he observes, are indigenous to the mountainous tracts of Tirhoot, and are much employed by the native hunters in poisoning the points of their arrows, a few of which were placed at the Baboo's disposal by a former Magistrate of Midnapore for the purpose of ascertaining the effects upon inferior animals. From the terrible character of the spasms, pervading the whole body, which preceded the death of a couple of dogs experimented upon, he had

* In this respect, the action of the poison differed from that of Aconite, which produces wide dilatation of the pupils, with more or less loss of sight. It will be seen, however, that the pupils here were observed to be dilated before death.

no doubt that the Kalkoote belongs to the family which produces the strychnine. It appears probable, however, that this poison is the Aconite. Baboo Issurchunder Gangooly also holds that the Aconite forms the basis of the Bish Baree.

Dr. Mouat published, in 1845,* the cases of two privates of H. M. 55th Regiment, at Chinhae, who suffered (in one of the cases fatally) from strongly marked symptoms of Aconite poisoning after swallowing a spirit called samshoo, supplied to them at a Chinese drinking-shop.

For full accounts of the Symptoms and Post-Mortem Appearances in cases of poisoning with Aconite, and for the mode of separating Aconitine,-See Taylor on Poisons and O'Shaughnessy's Bengal Dispensatory-See also APPENDIX B.-For curious information regarding Aconite-See Wallich, Plant. Asiat. Rar., vol. 1, p. 35, and Wight, Illustrations of Ind. Botany.

THUGGEE BY POISON.

While the whole system of organization of the bands of Phansigars who, a few years since, overran India, has been thoroughly laid bare; and while an equally clear light is now being thrown upon the practice of Dacoity in Bengal, very little appears to have been done towards revealing and placing a check upon the mysterious operations of those gangs of Poisoners by Profession who still infest every main road, and lurk in the purlieus of every large town throughout the country.

The subject is one that especially calls for the closest judicial investigation. I have been able to collect but little definite information regarding it, beyond a few scattered remarks in the Reports of the Superintendent of Police, Lower Provinces, and some cases in the Reports of the two

* India Journal of Medical and Physical Science, N. S.

M

Courts of Nizamut Adawlut; still, the facts which these embody sufficiently prove that a system of Thuggee by Poison has spread itself over every portion of the Bengal Presidency. It appears certain that the crime is equally prevalent throughout Bombay and Madras.

The following table, compiled from Mr. Dampier's Reports, will give some idea of the comparative prevalence of this crime in the several districts of the Lower Provinces, during a period of nine years. It affords no guide, however, to the actual prevalence of the crime, as it is considered probable that very many instances escape discovery; indeed Mr. Dampier has more than once insisted upon the fact, that this is a crime in which the detection of the culprits is but seldom made.* Further, it would appear that this table merely comprises the discovered instances of the lesser offence of Theft by Drugging, the cases in which death by poison was occasioned being omitted.

* Report for 1846, p. 5, and for 1850 p. 1.

Cases of Theft by the Administration of Drugs-Lower

Provinces.

1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 Total.

The first step in the investigation of this direful practice should be the discovery of the precise Classes to which the Professional Poisoners of India belong. Several of the deadliest poisons are so easily procurable, and are so well known in every part of the country, that it is not surprising that they should be employed by any unprincipled native in the furtherance of his criminal designs. Still, with due caution, no instance of drugging or poisoning, by any ordinary criminal, ought to be mistaken for an example of systematic Thuggee.

The individuals who may be expected to have the largest concern with poisons, and to be best acquainted with them, are the Druggists, the Bunneahs, (who, although dealing in other articles, have, in many instances, collections of drugs by them,) and the Native Doctors. It is only too evident that the native dealers part with their poisonous wares with the most reckless indifference. It is well known that, a few years since, many Thugs assumed the characters of shopkeepers, as a means of facilitating their iniquitious designs; and I have, myself, met with one case, at Chittagong, in which a Bunneah was under very strong suspicion of having been concerned in drugging two travellers. Still I have not been able to meet with any instance in the criminal records, in which a Drug-seller or a Bunneah was tried as a principal in any case of poisoning; nor can I discover any fact which would lead to the belief that the Byeds, Kobrajira or Hukeems of this Presidency afford the aid of their knowledge to criminal purposes. There is, in nearly every village throughout the country, a hag of low caste and evil repute, half dai half dain, suspected as a witch, professedly a midwife; equally ready, at all times, to practise as a doctoress, a sorceress, or a bawd; and carrying on a systematic trade in the procuration of abortion by the use of the most deadly poisons It is the belief of persons well acquainted with the habits of the