Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1893 — Bamboo Poisoning. [ARTICLE]

Bamboo Poisoning.

Chicago Mail. The bamboo, the reeds of which are useful iu so many ways, is used by the Japanese as a means with which they wreak bitter vengeance on offenders and enemies, for it contains a poison of a terribly destructive nature, which causes a slow and painful death and is all the more pernicious as it can be administered m a manner that defies detection. The powerful poison is found close to the Knots of the bamboo reed in the form of small black fibrous threads, which can be easily removed with a knife, a piece of glass or any other cutting instrument. Mixed with water or food they are absorbed without being noticed, and they settle at once in the throat or other air passages, which they commence to obstruct, producing a wretched cough and inflammation, which ends in tuberculosis and other mortal diseases of the lungs and throat, with ultimate death. Proofs of this were obtained in experimenting with a dog. The symptoms were as follows; Loss of appetite, increasing thirst, cough and expectoration, loss of flesh, protruding eyes, manifest anxietjr and oppression, with death following in a short tbpe.