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which some botanists have considered identical with the former spe- 

 cies. On the Congo river, Captain Tuckey found that either this 

 species, or an allied species of the same genus, was in constant use 

 for the same purpose. These barks, when their active constituents 

 are swallowed in the form of infusion, sometimes cause vomiting ; 

 and then the accused recovers, and in that case is pronounced inno- 

 cent. More generally the poison is retained ; and then the evidence 

 of guilt is at the same time condemnation and punishment ; for 

 death speedily ensues. 



In the district of Old Calabar, the poison used for the trial by 

 ordeal is a bean, called Esere, which seems to possess extraordinary 

 energy and very peculiar properties. It has been lately made 

 known to the missionaries sent by the United Presbyterian Church 

 in Scotland to the native tribes of Calabar ; and to tlie Rev. Mr 

 Waddell, one of these gentlemen, the author was chiefly indebted for 

 the materials for his experiments, as well as for information as to 

 its effects on man. According to what the missionaries often saw, 

 this poison is one of great energy, as it sometimes proves fatal in 

 half an hour, and a single bean has proved sufficient to occasion 

 death. None recover who do not vomit it. The greater number 

 perish. On one occasion forty individuals were subjected to trial, 

 when a chief died in suspicious circumstances, and only two re- 

 covered. 



The author found the bean to present generally the characters of 

 a Dolichos. It has been grown at his request both by Professor Syme 

 and at the Botanic Gardens by Mr M'Nab ; and it proves to be a 

 perennial leguminous creeper, resembling a dolichos, but it has not 

 yet flowered. The seed weighs about forty or fifty grains. It is 

 neither bitter, nor aromatic, nor hot, and differs little in taste from a 

 haricot bean. Alcohol removes its active constituent, in the former of 

 an extractiform matter, amounting to 2*7 per cent, of the seed. The 

 author could not obtain an alkaloid from it by any of the simpler 

 processes for detaching vegetable alkaloids. 



By experiment on animals, and from observation of its effects 

 on himself, the ordeal bean has a double action on the animal 

 body : it paralyses the hearths action, and it suspends the power of 

 the will over the muscles, causing paralysis. It is a potent poison, for 

 twelve grains caused severe symptoms in his own person, although 

 the poison was promptly evacuated by vomiting, excited by hot 



