raised in an upper class environment?

 What is a clear sign that someone was raised in an upper class environment?

The key to recognizing an upper class upbringing is understanding that since the Great Depression, when economic inequality became a potent issue, the American upper class has eschewed overt displays of wealth. The objective of the upper class is is to communicate their status to those of similar background without rubbing it in the faces of those of moderate means.

This represented a significant shift from the tradition of ostentatious upper class display. But it make it more difficult to identify people with an upper class background, since one has to have some knowledge to do so.

Perhaps the best place to start is to describe the signs that someone wasn’t raised in an upper class environment. I think we all recognize people who are working class, poor, and middle class — the “guy next door.” But how does one distinguish new money from old?

Donald Trump is an excellent example of new money. He wears his wealth on his sleeve. His tastes are glitzy, superficial, and gauche, intended to awe and impress those less wealthy than himself — lots of gold plating, appropriated coats of arms, and so forth.

By way of contrast, old money is characterized by restraint and a quiet, shared knowledge of culture and custom.

A friend who inherited a fortune, for example, drives an old Volvo. He could easily afford something more ostentatious, but he has no interest in displaying his wealth to those who are less privileged than he is; he doesn’t have to shout “I’ve made it.”

Rather, someone from old money will convey his wealth by subtler means. My friend for example might hypothetically mention that he attended Brown. His dad had a box at the opera — indeed, was the president of Lincoln Center — so he could demonstrate that he’s familiar with the operatic repertoire.

Old money might live in a wonderful old house furnished with antiques rather than a tacky McMansion, or a gracious pre-war apartment on Fifth Avenue rather than an ugly modern duplex in a tacky reflective building that says “Trump” on the front.

Upper class tastes are sometimes formed in opposition to middle class tastes. If middle class people use tablecloths, the upper class will eschew them. If middle class people favor wall-to-wall carpeting, the upper class will favor bare wood floors. Again, it’s a subtle code that is difficult for outsiders to crack, as it is mastered through familiarity.

Dress is often a giveaway. Some decades ago, modern casual upper class dress was commercialized by designers who affected the preppie look, and if things haven’t changed since before my superannuation, you can look at their lines to get a feel for it.

Vocabulary is a giveaway as well. “Tux” or “evening dress?” There are many such examples.

A few questions can help establish upper class status. Where did they go to school? It will likely have been a prestigious private school and an Ivy (though that system isn’t as self contained as it was in the days when merely going to a feeder school meant one went on to an Ivy).

Do they live in neighborhoods favored by the upper class? The middle class summers on Fire Island, the uppers on the Vineyard.

Did they or do they engage in recreations like sailing or riding that are favored by the upper class?

A middle class person might ride Western; an upper class person would ride English.

The best description of the arcana of the modern American class system that I know of is Paul Fussel’s Class. It’s a fascinating and enlightening read: 

Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (9780671792251): Paul Fussell: Books ⁰¹

(And I’d recommend as well Veblen’s classic Theory of the Leisure Class, the proviso being that while it’s beyond remarkable it describes the American class system as it existed before the Great Depression, when the display of wealth and status was still the norm.)

[Notes : Books ⁰¹]

Paul Fussell (author)

Title: Class: A Guide Through the American Status...

A Touchy Subject 

Although most Americans sense that they live within an ex tremely complicated system of social classes and suspect that much of what is thought and done here is prompted by consid erations of status, the subject has remained murky. And always touchy. You can outrage people today simply by mentioning social class, very much the way, sipping tea among the aspidistras a century ago, you could silence a party by adverting too openly to sex. When, recently, asked what I am writing, I have answered, "A book about social class in America," people tend first to straighten their ties and sneak a glance at their cuffs to see how far fraying has advanced there. Then, a few minutes later, they silently get up and walk away. It is not just that I am feared as a class spy. It is as if I had said, "I am working on a book urging the beating to death of baby whales using the dead bodies of baby seals." Since I have been writing this book, I have experienced many times the awful truth of R. H. Tawney's perception, in his book Equality (1931): "The word 'class' is fraught with unpleasing associations, so that to linger upon it is apt to be interpreted as the symptom of a perverted mind and a jaundiced spirit.

Especially in America, where the idea of class is notably embarrassing. In his book Inequality in an Age of Decline (1980), the sociologist Paul Blumberg goes so far as to call it "America's forbidden thought." Indeed, people often blow their tops if the subject is even broached. One woman, asked by a couple of interviewers if she thought there were social classes in this country, she answered: "It's the dirtiest thing I've ever heard of!" And a man, asked the same question, he got so angry that he blurted out, "Social class should be exterminated!" Actually, you reveal a great deal about your social class by the amount of annoyance or fury you feel when the subject is brought up. A tendency to get very anxious suggests that you are middle class and nervous about slipping down a rung or two. On the other hand, upper-class people love the topic to come up: the more attention paid to the matter, the better off they seem to be. Proletarians generally don't mind discussions of the subject because they know they can do little to alter their class identity. Thus, the whole class matter is likely to seem like a joke to them - the upper classes fatuous in their empty aristocratic preten tiousness, the middles loathsome in their anxious gentility. It is the middle class that is highly class-sensitive and sometimes class-scared to death. A representative of that class left his mark on a library copy of Russell Lynes's The Tastemakers (1954). Next to a passage patronizing the insecure decorating taste of the mid dle class and satirically contrasting its artistic behavior to that of some more sophisticated classes, this offended reader scrawled, in large capitals, "BULL SHIT!" A hopelessly middle-class man (not a woman, surely?) if I ever saw one.

If you reveal your class by your outrage at the very topic, you reveal it also by the way you define the thing that's outraging you. At the bottom, people tend to believe that class is defined by the amount of money you have. In the middle, people grant that money has something to do with it, but think education and the kind of work you do almost equally important. Nearer the top, people perceive that taste, values, ideas, style, and behavior are indispensable criteria of class, regardless of money or occu pation or education. One woman interviewed by Studs Terkel for Division Street: America (1967) clearly revealed her class as middle both by her uneasiness about the subject's being intro duced and by her instinctive recourse to occupation as the essen tial class criterion. "We have right on this street almost every class," she said. "But I shouldn't say class," she went on, "because we don't live in a nation of classes." Then, the occupational criterion: "But we have janitors living on the street, we have doctors, we have businessmen, CPAs.'

Being told that there are no social classes in the place where the  interviewee lives is an old experience for sociologists. " 'We don't have classes in our town' almost invariably is the first remark recorded by the investigator," reports Leonard Reissman, author of Class in American Life (1959). "Once that has been uttered and is out of the way, the class divisions the town can be recorded with what seems to be an amazing degree of agreement among the good citizens of the community." The novelist John O'Hara made a whole career out of probing into this touchy subject, to which he was astonishingly sensitive. While still a boy, he was noticing that in the Pennsylvania town where he grew up, "older people do not treat others as equals.

Class distinctions in America are so complicated and subtle that foreign visitors often miss the nuances and sometimes even' the existence of a class structure. So powerful is "the fable of equal ity," as Frances Trollope called it when she toured America in 1832, so embarrassed is the government to confront the subject -in the thousands of measurements pouring from its bureaus, social class is not officially recognized-that it's easy for visitors not to notice the way the class system works. A case in point the experience of Walter Allen, the British novelist and literary critic. Before he came over here to teach at a college in the 1950s, he imagined that "class scarcely existed in America, except, per haps, as divisions between ethnic groups or successive waves of immigrants." But living awhile in Grand Rapids opened his eyes: there he learned of the snob power of New England and the pliability of the locals to the long-wielded moral and cultural authority of old families.

Some Americans viewed with satisfaction the failure of the 1970s TV series Beacon Hill, a drama of high society modeled on the British Upstairs, Downstairs, comforting themselves with the belief that this venture came to grief because there is no class system here to sustain interest in it. But they were mistaken.

Beacon Hill failed to engage American viewers because it focused on perhaps the least interesting place in the indigenous class structure, the quasi-aristocratic upper class. Such a dramatization might have done better if it had dealt with places where everyone recognizes interesting class collisions occur-the place where the upper-middle class meets the middle and resists its attempted incursions upward, or where the middle class does the same to the classes just below it.

If foreigners often fall for the official propaganda of social equality, the locals tend to know what's what, even if they feel .... ( click here to read on )

New Life, Now and Forever

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 

— Romans 6:8 

我们若是与基督同死，就信必与他同活。

Wǒmen ruòshì yǔ jīdū tóng sǐ, jiù xìn bì yǔ tā tóng huó.

If you’re like me, you probably struggle with anxiety and worry more than you’d like to admit. But you don’t have to linger in feelings of hopelessness, fear, or worthlessness—ever. Why?

Your union with Christ is both deep and complete.

Romans 6 describes a spiritual fusion uniting us into Christ’s death and His resurrection. Our participation in the death of Jesus ensures our participation in His resurrection. 

Often, Christians focus strongly on the crucifixion of our “old self,” but forget that we have also been raised with Christ into new life (see Ephesians 4:24**). Our spiritual death liberates us from sin and our spiritual resurrection grants us new, abundant, permanent life in Christ. (**¹ and that ye put on that new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. **² and put on the new self [the regenerated and renewed nature], created in God’s image, [godlike] in the righteousness and holiness of the truth [living in a way that expresses to God your gratitude for your salvation].)

Embrace your new identity because this new life with Christ is both contemporary and eternal. We have been given a new life now. So despite difficult feelings or circumstances, you can live a life that pleases God and points others to Christ. 

Worry tempts me frequently. We all experience feelings of anxiety, depression, or temptation, but that is not our identity. We have been given the mind of Christ, and through the Holy Spirit, Christ lives both in and through us. 

Life will not be worry-free or easy. But whatever we face, we overcome as Christ would— through His abiding love, perspective and power. 

You also possess a promised future and final resurrection. This hope anchors you even in the darkest of thoughts or temptations: No matter what happens now, one day Jesus will make things right in your life and the lives of those around the world. 

Your union with Christ covers everything and lasts eternally. Yes, you have died with Christ, you’ve also begun your eternal life with Him, in the present. Take hold of your new, abundant life now and forever. Yes, I have died with Christ Jesus, I have also begun my eternal life with Him , here and now. 

Prayer: Father, I am grateful that Your eternal life has brought me to life. Guide me to speak and live through the grace and power of your Holy Spirit. Remind me that I am no longer a slave to sin, and teach me what it means to think, feel, and act from the mind of Christ You have given me. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.

New Life in Christ, New Life, Anxiety

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Dealing with Jealousy

The Green-Eyed Monster

Channelview, Texas is a neat, middle-class suburb of Houston. It is a typical bedroom community of nice homes, nice cars, and nice families. Like most family towns, sports events are popular here because they provide fun family time. Competition is fierce, no matter the sport, but in Channelview, the cheerleading competition reigns supreme.

Amber and Shanna lived right around the corner from each other, and they had been friends for years. Amber was president of her school’s student council and Shanna was her VP. Their mothers were also friends and would take turns carpooling the girls back and forth to school. This harmony, however, subsided when the girls reached 6th grade. Amber made the cheer squad, and Shanna did not. This patter wasn’t necessarily new, and Shanna’s mother grew tired of Amber always coming out on top. So much so that her disdain began to go to extremes like the time she attempted to get Amber disqualified from the cheerleading squad by invoking a technicality in the rules. Some of her bizarre behavior eventually resulted in Shanna being disqualified from the squad.

Eventually, she became so inflamed with jealousy that she tried to hire a hitman to kill both Amber and her mother. In her search for a killer, she mentioned the plan to her former brother-in-law, who reported it to the police. They were able to trap her by sending an undercover officer to act as if he was a hitman. The tape recording reveals a conversation agreeing to kill Amber’s mother for $5,000 and Amber for $2,500. Mrs. Holloway was unable to come up with the cash immediately, so she gave a pair of diamond earrings as a down-payment. She was, of course, arrested for solicitation of capital murder and sentenced to 15 years in jail.  

 As shocked as I was when I read the story, after pondering on it for a bit, I decided I wasn’t that surprised. This terrible story is a perfect portrait of what jealousy can do when it is allowed to build up and fester. It earned its name “the green-eyed monster” because it can turn anyone under its control into just that–a monster. It certainly made a monster out of Mrs. Holloway.  

Jealousy is one of the most destructive emotions. Proverbs 27:4 says “Wrath is fierce, and anger is a flood, but who can stand before jealousy?” Jealousy is what motivated Pilate to hand Jesus over to be crucified (Matthew 27:18). The first murder in recorded history is of Abel, killed by his own jealous brother, Cain.  

I prefer to describe jealousy as a “cancer of the heart”. Like cancer, jealousy kills from the inside out. It kills marriages, friendships, families. It turns blessings into bitterness. It is, indeed, a terrible monster. The good news is you can slay this green-eyes monster with a plan of attack. 

How to Recognize Jealousy 

What causes jealousy?

 How does it show its face? 

Perhaps a classmate makes the school sport team, and you don’t. 

A coworker gets a promotion, and you don’t. 

Your friend moves into a bigger home, and you can’t afford to. 

Perhaps you friend drives a nicer car than you do. 

You see, people all over social media always seems to have the perfect marriage and the perfect life. 

People appear prettier or thinner than you are. 

The list of what can trigger jealousy could literally go on and on and on. 

As previously mentioned in Proverbs 27:4, who can stand before jealousy? In other words, who can survive it? 

All of us will be tempted to struggle with it, and we need to be able to recognize it and defeat it when it rears its ugly head. 

Jealousy starts when we begin to compare ourselves to others. Doing so robs you of the peace that you should have in your heart due to God’s blessing in your life. When you compare what you have to what others have, you forget to be thankful for what you do have. Instead of being happy for another person whom God has blessed, you become resentful and often angry.  

How Jealousy Steals Your Joy 

William Shakespeare compared jealousy to the deadly poison of a mad dog’s tooth**. That’s interesting because Proverbs 14:30 says “A sound heart is life to the body; but envy is rottenness to the bones.” Notice the verse says envy rots the bones. Your bones are inside your body. Envy destroys you from the inside out. It begins in the mind and the heart, and when you don’t control your thoughts and allow jealousy to grow and take over, it will destroy you. 

 ( **“The venom clamours of a jealous woman,

Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.

It seems his sleeps were hinder’d by thy railing:

And thereof comes it that his head is light.

Thou say’st his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings:

Unquiet meals make ill digestions;

Thereof the raging fire of fever bred;

And what’s a fever but a fit of madness?

Thou say’st his sports were hinder’d by thy brawls:

Sweet recreation barr’d, what doth ensue

But moody and dull melancholy,

Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair;

And at her heels a huge infectious troop

Of pale distemperatures and foes to life?

In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest

To be disturb’d, would mad or man or beast:

The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits

Have scared thy husband from the use of wits.” ― William Shakespeare(c. 23 April 1564 - 23 April 1616), The Comedy of Errors

I read a story about two shopkeepers who were bitter rivals. Their stores were across the street from each other, so they could easily see how much business the other was receiving in a given day. When one of them would get a customer, he would smile a toothy grin at the other across the street. One night, one of the shopkeepers dreamed an angel visited him and said, “I’ll give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. You can be wealthy, but he will be twice as rich. If you want to live long, he will live twice as long. So, what is your desire?” The man frowned, thought for a moment and said, “Strike me blind in one eye.” 

That’s both funny and sad. Jealousy truly steals the satisfaction you should have with what you already possess. It prevents you from sharing in and celebrating the joy of others. 

Consider the Upas *¹* tree that grows in Indonesia. It secretes poison and grows so full and thick that it destroys all the vegetation that grows underneath and around it. Jealousy is the Upas tree in real life. It may give you shelter from your inadequacies and shortcomings, but its poison will destroy any joy or fruit in your life. Jealousy has absolutely no regard for financial status, age, or social standing. No one is immune. It is the enemy of peace, joy, contentment, and love.  

How to Overcome Jealousy 

Moses provides a wonderful example to follow when dealing with jealousy. As the Bible notes, God used Moses mightily, and God multiplied Moses’s ministry in the lives of 70 elders who were given the gift of prophecy. Two of these elders, Eldad and Medad, were particularly gifted and began prophesying in the camp. A young man came to Moses and told him the news. Joshua demanded, “Moses, forbid them!” But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:26-29, NASB) Moses knew not to be jealous, but to rejoice in the Lord blessing and using others. 

We should all desire to honestly rejoice in someone else’s success. The ability to overcome jealousy can only come from God. Pray to Him. Ask that He would show you where you are discontented. Confess that to Him and ask Him to strengthen you and give you the ability to rejoice in what you have as well as for others.  

Charles Swindoll said, “It is a good test to the rise and fall of egotism to notice how you listen to the praises of other men on your standing. Until you can listen to the praises of someone else without any desire to indulge in detraction, or any attempt to belittle his work, you may be sure there is an in-mortified prairie of egotistic impulse in your nature yet to be brought under the grace of God.”  

In the New Testament, we have the words written in Philippians 4:11 that convey how to overcome jealousy. Paul, speaking to the church at Philippi says, “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” Learning to be content in your current circumstances is key, but let’s dig deeper. To get right down to the point, if you are focused on Christ and serving him and less on yourself and your circumstances, it’s a lot easier to be content. If you allow your mind to focus solely on yourself, your sinful nature will take over and steer your thoughts to your wants and desires 100% of the time. However, if you are taking your thoughts captive and making them obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5), you are much less self-focused and much more Christ-focused.  

Here’s the bottom line…when you are concentrating on being where God wants you to be and doing what God wants you to do, you will be content with what God wants you to have. At its core, jealousy is a rebellion against God’s providential leading in your life. When you are jealous of someone else, you are essentially saying, “God has no right to bless someone else more than He has blessed me.”  

Contentment is the key to overcoming jealousy. Learn to be happy where you are right this moment. Enjoy life now with your current blessings. Nothing will slay that green-eyed monster like being satisfied with where you are, what you have, and giving gratitude to the God who has already blessed you with more than you deserve.

(*¹* Antiarin and the Legend of the Upas Tree

Posted on . by JUSTIN9 Comments

Today’s media, whether it be traditional or social, is full of hot takes, sensationalism, and massive amounts of hyperbole. I often wonder how different things would be if we had internet and social media back in the 1800s, but then I snap out of it and realize that we probably haven’t changed all that much, things were just slower back then. Today, we can pass around and debunk Betty White’s death and reincarnation as an android in the span of 24 hours. In the 1800s it might have taken decades to prove she was alive and kicking, capturing the imagination of generations in the meantime. This is probably how urban legends and folklore gained traction, and the myths of the upas tree are a great example.

Antiaris toxicaria upas tree

Antiaris toxicaria. John Lindley, 1866 (CC 0).

The upas tree, Antiaris toxicaria, grows throughout the world, particularly the tropical areas of Africa, Asia, and Australia. It is a massive, stately tree that can reach heights of 120 feet (40 meters) and in the 1800s known as a matter of fact to be “one of the most deadly vegetable products of creation (1, check out this book title).” While this very well could have been true at the time, the other legends of the deadly upas tree are harder to believe. It was said that the tree lived in plains devoid of all other vegetation and that no living creature could live within three leagues (ten miles) of it due to its noxious, poisonous vapors that left the ground littered with the skeletal remains of man and creature alike. This has all the makings of a Stephen King novel. I guess no one thought to ask “if you can’t get within miles of it, how do you know it even exists?”

The famed upas tree was so well known that it was a common metaphor for anything poisonous or toxic and used many times in political cartoons of the 1800s. It was definitely a part of society and understood by all. Even Erasmus Darwin, the famed philosopher poet and grandfather of Charles, got in on the action. He wrote of the famed tree in his poem The Loves of the Plants:

Fierce in dread silence on the blasted heath,

Fell upas alts, the Hydra-Tree of death.

Upas Tree. Antiaris toxicaria by Leonora Enking (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Antiaris toxicaria by Leonora Enking (CC BY-SA 2.0)

All of these descriptions of the upas tree are too extreme to be believed, of course, and proven untrue in 1810 when French botanist Jean-Baptiste Leschenault explored the Indonesian island of Java. He quite literally found himself in a thick forest, face-to-face with an upas tree…and lived to tell the tale! Not convinced to merely gaze upon its poisonous splendor, he cut it down. He even accidentally smeared the latex, oozing from the cut wood, onto his hands, without any ill effects. He was absolutely certain, however, that if he had cuts on his hands, the sap surely would have ended his life. To prove the point he injected a drop of the Javan upas juice into a dog, which died within five minutes. It took 8 drops to kill a horse in the same amount of time. Why he felt the need to kill a dog and a horse is beyond me.

The legend of the upas tree isn’t all steeped in hyperbole, though. The milky latex from Antiaris toxicaria was used as an arrow poison for long periods of time. The liquid was collected from cut trees and dried, concentrating the poison, before being applied to the tips of arrows and darts. In Malaysia this method was used in hunting small game, such as monkeys and birds, and also larger animals, like deer and boar. It was the poison, spread on the tips and shafts of darts that killed their prey, not the darts themselves.

Today, two collections of Malaysian dart poisons originally obtained in 1883 and 1924 were analyzed (2). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was used to isolate and identify the components of the poisons. Analysis revealed the cardiac glycoside antiarin, along with several other related steroids, in each of the poison samples. The experiments also found strychnine in several of the samples, which is not so surprising given that arrow and dart poisons are typically a “witches brew” of plant and animal toxins.

antiarin cardiac glycoside upas treeAntiarin is a cardiac glycoside, much like digoxin, oleandrin, and cerberin, which we’ve encountered a few times on this blog. Like the others, it has a steroid backbone, specifically a cardenolide, conjugated with a sugar moiety (the “glycoside” part). Like the aforementioned glycosides, antiarin also has potential medical use as a treatment for heart failure. Its use as an arrow and dart poison, however, is much more interesting, as it has a reported LD50 (the concentration needed to kill 50% of the tested population) of 0.11 mg/kg in mammals, making it more lethal than the famous curare (0.5 mg/kg) (3). The key to dart poisons is that poisoned meat must be safe to eat, and that is certainly the case with antiarin. When cooked, the glycoside on antiarin hydrolyzes (pops off), rendering the poison inactive and the meat safe to consume.

We gain energy from the foods we consume, but we are in fact, electric. The flow of charged ions throughout our body causes our muscles to contract and our hearts to beat. It is a wondrous operation, but just like a movie villain ripping cables out of an electrical panel, sending sparks flying and lights shuttering, our electric machinery can go haywire, too. The sodium-potassium pump, located throughout the body, is a transport protein that, true to its name, pumps sodium out of the cell and potassium into it. The net effect is a voltage difference between the inside and outside of the cell, what we call a membrane potential. When the potential, or charge, rises and falls along the membrane, signals are sent, much akin to electricity flowing down a wire to illuminate a lightbulb or power a motor. This is how biceps contract, hearts beat, and neurons in the brain fire – the flow of charged ions into and out of the cell. A dichotomy between a simple concept and complex biomachinery.

Cardiac glycosides inhibit sodium-potassium pumps. In an overdose, antiarin is the movie villain. Sparks are flying and machinery is shutting down. Our heart rate slows and our muscles are weakened. Other effects come from alterations of our sympathetic nervous system – also controlled by electrical impulses – and include blurred vision and the winning trifecta of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Without supportive care, and an expensive antidote called Digibind, you’ll probably die.

So while the upas tree doesn’t kill wildlife within a 10-mile radius, and the trunks aren’t surrounded by the skeletal remains of its victims, the antiarin it contains is a potent toxin with a well-established history as a dart poison. The myths and legends of such things are interesting to read about today, and no doubt would have been readily debunked had social media existed back then, but I’m glad we have them as a reminder of how far we’ve come, if not for the entertainment value. Now, Alexander Hamilton on Twitter? I’d sign up for that!

References:

●Buel, James W. Sea and Land: an Illustrated History of the Wonderful and Curious Things of Nature Existing before and since the Deluge …: Being a Natural History of the Sea Illustrated by Stirring Adventures with Whales …: Also a Natural History of Land-Creatures Such as Lions …: to Which Is Appended a Description of the Cannibals and Wild Races of the World, Their Customs, Habits, Ferocity and Curious Ways. J.S. Robertson, 1887.

●Kopp, B., et al. “Analysis of Some Malaysian Dart Poisons.” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 36 (1992): 57-62.

●Zhou, Jiaju, Guirong Xie, and Xinjian Yan. Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicines. Berlin: Springer, 2011. )