Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/237

 UPAS TREE UPHAM 217 the emanations of the upas tree killed all ani- mals that approached it, even birds that flew too near it falling dead; that criminals con- demned to death were allowed as an alterna- tive to go to that tree and collect some of the poison, only two out of 20 ever return- ing ; and that he had learned from those for- tunate enough to return that the tree was in Upas Tree (Autiaris toxicaria). a valley, with no other tree or plant within 10 or 12 m. of it, all being a barren waste, strewn with human and other bones ; he also said that out of a population of 1,600, who were forced by a civil war to take refuge within 12 or 14 m. of the tree, only 300 were alive at the end of three months. These stories were accepted until they were dis- proved by Leschenault, whose memoir (An- nales du museum d'histoire naturelle, 1810) is translated in Hooker's " Companion to the Botanical Magazine," vol. i. So far from grow- ing in a solitary desert, the upas is found in the forests with other trees, and lizards and other animals do not avoid it; its poisonous emanations appear to have a similar effect to those of our poison ivy and sumach, and to affect some persons and not others ; several botanists have since collected specimens with- out unpleasant results, and living plants of upas are now in the principal botanic gardens of Europe, where they are not known to be harmful. It is supposed that the story of the valley of death had its origin in the fact that there was some locality in a volcanic country where an abundant emission of carbonic acid gas produced the fatal results ascribed to the upas tree. The poison has long been used by the natives upon their arrows and other im- plements of war and the chase ; the basis of the poison is the juice of the tree, collected by making incisions, and with this they mix, as do the South Americans in preparing woorara, various other substances, which seem to be more required by tradition than for any effi- cacy they can add to the poison ; among those mixed with the upas are the juice of the onion and garlic, cardamom, black pepper, and seeds of a capsicum. When introduced into the cir- culation of an animal, it acts upon the vascular system, and causes a congestion of the prin- cipal viscera, especially the lungs, and death follows in a few minutes. The natives of the same countries use another and more deadly poison, tieute, from a species ofstrychnos, which at once affects the nervous system and causes almost instant death. The inner bark of the upas tree affords a fibre which is spun into cloth and worn by the poorer classes as a sub- stitute for linen ; if this accidentally gets wet, it produces an intolerable itching. Another species, A. saccidora, of Malabar, has a bark so tough that bags for rice and other articles are made from it ; the branches are cut into truncheons of the proper size, and the bark removed in such a manner as to leave a thin section of wood as a bottom to the bag. UPHAM, Charles Wentworth, an American au- thor, born in St. John, New Brunswick, May 4, 1802, died in Salem, Mass., June 14, 1875. He graduated at Harvard college in 1821, and at the Cambridge divinity school in 1824, and was pastor of the first Unitarian church in Salem till December, 1844, when he left the ministry. He was mayor of Salem in 1852, member of congress in 1853-'5, for several years a member of the legislature, and in 1857- '8 president of the state senate. He ed- ited the "Christian Register" in 1845-'6, and published "Letters on the Logos" (Boston, 1828) ; " Lectures on Witchcraft, comprising a History of the Salem Delusion, 1692 " (1831 ; enlarged ed., 2 vols. 8vo, 1867) ; " Life of Sir Henry Vane" (in Sparks's "American Biog- raphy," 1835) ; " Prophecy as an Evidence of Christianity " (1835) ; " Life of J. C. Fremont " (1856) ; " Memoir of Francis Peabody " (1869) ; " Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather, a Re- ply " (1870) ; and vols. ii., iii., and iv. of the "Life of Timothy Pickering," begun by Oc- tavius Pickering (1867-72). I'PHAM, Thomas Cogswell, an American author, born in Deerfield, K H., Jan. 30, 1799, died in New York, April 2, 1872. He graduated at Dartmouth college in 1818, and at Andover theological seminary in 1821, when he became assistant teacher of the Hebrew language. While thus engaged he prepared a translation of Jahn's " Biblical Archaeology," which passed through numerous editions. In 1823 he was ordained colleague pastor of the Congregational church in Rochester, K H. ; and from 1825 to 1867 he was professor of mental and moral philosophy in Bowdoin college. Among his works are : " Ratio Disciplines, or the Constitution of Con- gregational Churches " (Portland, 1829) ; " Ele- ments of Mental Philosophy" (2 vols. 12mo, 1839; abridged ed., 1864); and "Philosophi- cal and Practical Treatise on the Will" (12mo, New York, 1850). He also wrote a series of treatises and memoirs on religious experience, approximating in sentiment to the writings of Tauler, Gerson, and other mystics of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. Their titles are :