"
Doctor Nott was too overwhelmed to reply.
"And what is this deadly poison?" continued Craig, anticipating
our thoughts. "I have been fortunate enough to obtain a sample of
it from the Museum of Natural History. It comes in a little
gourd, or often a calabash. This is in a gourd. It is blackish
brittle stuff encrusting the sides of the gourd just as if it was
poured in in the liquid state and left to dry. Indeed, that is
just what has been done by those who manufacture this stuff after
a lengthy and somewhat secret process."
He placed the gourd on the edge of the table where we could all
see it. I was almost afraid even to look at it.
"The famous traveller, Sir Robert Schomburgh first brought it
into Europe, and Darwin has described it. It is now an article of
commerce and is to be found in the United States Pharmacopoeia as
a medicine, though of course it is used in only very minute
quantities, as a heart stimulant."
Craig opened a book to a place he had marked:
"At least one person in this room will appreciate the local
colour of a little incident I am going to read--to illustrate
what death from this poison is like. Two natives of the part of
the world whence it comes were one day hunting. They were armed
with blowpipes and quivers full of poisoned darts made of thin
charred pieces of bamboo tipped with this stuff.
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