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BEN # CCXIX
BBBBB EEEEEE NN N ISSN 1188-603X
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BBBBB EEEEE NN N N BOTANICAL
BB B EE NN NN ELECTRONIC
BBBBB EEEEEE NN N NEWS
No. CCXIX April 1, 1999
aceska@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Victoria, B.C.
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Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
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PROMINENT BOTANIST COURT-MARTIALED
From: Adolf Ceska <aceska@victoria.tc.ca>
Dr. Archibald Menzies was the first civil servant botanist in
the Pacific Northwest. He joined the Royal Navy long before he
got the position of naturalist and stand-in surgeon with with
George Vancouver's voyage to the northwest coast of America
(1791-1795). The objective of Captain Vancouver's voyage was to
explore the Pacific Northwest and lay claim to the land for the
British Crown. Menzies had collected plants along the West Coast
of North America and at almost all the other places where
Vancouver's ships landed (Groves, 1998). Dr. Menzies' case well
illustrates the difficulties that botanists have to face if they
are employed as civil servants.
It was Sir Joseph Banks, who gave very specific instructions and
directions to Dr. Menzies. Banks knew that Menzies task would
not be easy, since he himself had known Captain Vancouver from
the first Captain Cook's voyage. He warned Menzies (Anderson
1960, p. 46): "How Captain Vancouver will behave to you is more
than I can guess, unless I was to judge by his conduct towards
me - which was such as I am not used to receive from one in his
station. As it would be highly imprudent in him to throw any
obstacles in the way of your duty, I trust he will have too much
good sense to obstruct it."
Menzies encountered trouble with meal arrangements even before
the expedition started (Goodwin 1930, p. 201-202). The final
straw in the Vancouver - Menzies relationship was the incident
that happened on the last leg of their return journey to
England. According to Anderson (1960, p. 210), "Vancouver placed
one of Menzies' servants on regular watches working the ship.
During a downpour some of the Menzies' plant frames on deck were
left uncovered and many of the plants he was taking back to
England were damaged or destroyed. Menzies wanted Vancouver to
punish the man, whose normal duty it was to look after the
frames, but, when the captain found that he was carrying out the
orders of the officer of the watch at that time, he took no
action. Menzies complained, apparently rather vigorously, and
Vancouver placed him under arrest for insolence and contempt, a
charge that Menzies later denied."
Vancouver wrote a letter to Evan Nepean of the Admiralty demand-
ing a Court-Martial for Dr. Menzies (Godwin 1930, p. 142):
"Sir, - I am to request you will do me the honor of representing
to my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that I am excessively
sorry at being driven to the necessity of soliciting that a
Court-Martial may be held on Mr. Archibald Menzies, Surgeon of
His Majesty's sloop Discovery under my command, and officiating
also in the capacity of Botanist, for what I consider as a
breach of part of the 19th and 22nd articles of war, at sea, on
the 28th of July 1795; having, on that day, behaved to me on the
quarter-deck, with great contempt and disrespect, in consequence
of my having refused to punish, at his request, a person who had
throughout the voyage been considered as his servant. The In-
solent and unbecoming behavior of Mr. Menzies on that occasion
towards me, and his positive refusal to retract the harsh and
improper expressions he made use of, compels me to prefer this
charge, and to repeat my request that their Lordships will be
pleased, in consequence thereof, to order a Court-Martial."
A month later, Vancouver withdrew his charges after receiving an
apology from Menzies, and the order was cancelled.
References:
Anderson, B. 1960. Surveyor of the sea: the life and voyages of
Captain George Vancouver. University of Washington Press,
Seattle. 274 p.
Godwin, G. 1930. Vancouver, a life, 1757-1798. Philip Allan,
London. 308 p.
Groves, E.W. 1998. Archibald Menzies: an early plant collector
on the Pacific north and west coast of North America.
Menziesia 3(1): 14-15.
HOW TOXIC IS THE UPAS TREE - ANTIARIS TOXICARIA (MORACEAE) ?
From: Pp. 50-51 in: Lord Frederick Spencer Hamilton. c1921.
Here, there and everywhere. George H. Doran, NY. xii+332 p.
Peradeniya Botanical Gardens [in Colombo, Sri Lanka] rank as the
second finest in the world, being only surpassed by those at
Buitenzorg in Java. I had the advantage of being shown their
beauties by the curator himself, a most learned man, and what is
by no means a synonymous term, a very interesting one too.
Holding the position he did, it is hardly necessary to insist on
his nationality; his accent was still as marked as if he had
only left his native Aberdeen a week before. He showed me a
tall, graceful tree growing close to the entrance, with smooth,
whitish bark, and a family resemblance to a beech. This was the
famous ill-famed upas tree of Java, the subject of so many
ridiculous legends. The curator told me that the upas (Antiaris
toxicaria) was unquestionably intensely poisonous, juice and
bark alike. A scratch made on the finger by the bark might have
very serious results, and the emanations from a newly lopped-off
branch would be strong enough to bring out a rash; equally, any
one foolish enough to drink the sap would almost certainly die.
The stories of the tree giving out deadly fumes had no founda-
tion, for the curator had himself sat for three hours under the
tree without experiencing any bad effects whatever. All the
legends of the upas tree are based on an account of it by a Dr.
Foersch in 1783. This mendacious medico declared that no living
thing could exist within fifteen miles of the tree. The
Peradeniya curator pointed out that Java was a volcanic island,
and one valley where the upas flourishes is certainly fatal to
all animal life owing to the emanations of carbonic acid gas
escaping from fissures in the soil. It was impossible to look at
this handsome tree without some respect for its powers of evil,
though I doubt if it be more poisonous than the West Indian
manchineel. This latter insignificant tree is so virulently
toxic that rain-drops from its leaves will raise a blister on
the skin.
HELLEBORE USED AS THE FIRST RECORDED CHEMICAL WEAPON
The first recorded case of chemical war came from about 600 B.C.
It happened in Greece, in the war which Amphictyons led against
Cirrhaeans. Here is what Pausanias wrote about this event in his
"Description of Greece:"
"To Cirrha, the port of Delphi, is a distance by road of sixty
furlongs from Delphi. .. The plain all the way from Cirrha is
bare, and the people will not plant trees, either because a
curse rests on the land, or because they know that the soil is
not adapted to grow trees. ... The people of Cirrha sinned
against Apollo, and in particular they appropriated some of the
god's land. So the Amphictyons resolved to make war on the
Cirrhaeans, and they appointed Clisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, to
the command, and fetched Solon from Athens to give them his
advice. When they inquired how the victory would go, the Pythian
priestess gave them this answer:
Ye shall not take and cast down the towers of this city,
Till on my precinct blue-eyed Amphitrite's
Wave, plashing o'er the darkling deep, shall break.
Hence Solon persuaded them to consecrate the territory of Cirrha
to the god, in order that Apollo's precinct might be bounded by
the sea. He devised yet another stratagem against the Cir-
rhaeans. The water of the Plistus flowed into the city in a
canal, and he diverted the water into another channel. But as
the besieged still held out, subsisting on water from wells and
on rainwater, he flung roots of hellebore into the Plistus, and
when he saw that the water was sufficiently charged with the
drug he turned it back into the canal. The Cirrhaeans drank so
freely of the water that the sentinels on the walls were forced,
by incessant diarrhea, to quit their posts. When the Amphictyons
took the city they punished the Cirrhaeans on behalf of the god,
and Cirrha is still the port of Delphi."
Reference:
Pausanias's Description of Greece, translated with a commentary
by J.G. Frazer. Biblio & Tannen, New York. 1965. Vol. 1: 557-
558. Bk.X, Ch. xxxvii.
Y2K BUG WILL BE TESTED IN NEWFOUNDLAND FIRST
The Canadian government has decided to test the Y2K bug in
Newfoundland. Although almost everything is usually half an hour
later in Newfoundland, the year 2000 will arrive there half an
hour sooner than to their closest neighbours. The other Canadian
provinces will get enough warning and will be able to learn from
the Newfoundland experience how to save themselves. British
Columbia and Yukon will have plenty of time to find out how to
cope with the Y2K bug. In a leaked provincial goverment memo,
however, all computer programmers are being asked to stay sober
on the New Year's Eve. Just in case.
BEN is Y2K clean, but to be on a sure side, print out several
last issues of BEN and buy few candles. Candles blessed on
Candlemas Day will protect you from the Y2K bug better than the
ordinary ones.
MELISSA - APOLOGIES
Sorry, BEN is unable to distribute MELISSA virus. We operate
strictly in the old, windowless MS-DOS, and we cannot read
attachments. The computer on which BEN is produced still has its
original 1981 IBM screen (green letters on a dark background).
We have to apologize for not being able to send you the list of
interesting web pages that MELISSA distributes as an attachment.
640K OUGHT TO BE ENOUGH FOR ANYBODY -- Bill Gates, 1981
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