Good research David! Wikipedia is no doubt a great source of info. Individual entries are usually edited by multiple parties, and are kept more reliable than a lot of of other web info. But, even though there is a ton of interlinking between related entries, you don't see enough editing of bodies of related entries as a whole. So, depending on how one enters Wikipedia, conflicting info can be found:

"...Curare [kew rah ree] [1] is a common name for various arrow poisons originating from South America....

...Curare has been used historically as a paralyzing poison by South American indigenous people. The prey is killed by arrows or blowgun darts that are dipped in curare, which leads to asphyxiation as the respiratory muscles of the hunted animal are unable to contract....

...[tubocurare] is one of the chemicals that can be obtained from curare, itself an extract of Chondrodendron tomentosum, a plant found in South American jungles which is used as a source of arrow poison."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curare

From a historical point of view it would also be interesting to know how much Prettner and Matt knew about South American hunting practices and where they got their info. Maybe their interests derived from popular art and literature (sort of like trying to learn about American Indians from watching Hollywood westerns).[X(] []

Anyway, looking at the RCM&E article I spied a familiar engine. The Webra 1030 with a Dynamix, just like the one I was testing last week. I'm getting more interested in building an Arrow. I would consider renaming it the Dart, but Lanier already grabbed that name.

David