SEMEN PHYSOSTIGMATIS. 191 



SEMEN PHYSOSTIGMATIS. 



Faha Calaharica, Faha Physostigniatis ; Calabar Bean, Ordeal Bean 

 of Old Calabar, Eser4 Nut, Choj)-niit; F. Feve de Calabar; G. 

 G<dabarboUne, 



Botanical Origin — Physostigiiut venenosum Balfour, a perennial 

 plant resembling the common Scarlet Runner (Phaseolus niidtijlorvs 

 Lam.) of our gardens, but having a woody stem often an inch or 

 two thick, climbing; to a height of 50 feet or more. It grows near 

 the mouths of the Nio^er and the Old Calabar River in the Gulf of 

 bumea. 



The imported seeds germinate freely, but the plant, though it 

 thrives vigorously in a hothouse, has not yet, we believe, flowered in 

 Europe. It has already been introduced into India and Brazil. In 

 the latter country Dr. Peckolt, late of Cantagallo, has raised plants 

 which have blossomed abundantly, producing racemes of about 80 

 flowers each, pendent from the axils of the ternate leaves. 



The flower, which is fully an inch across and of a purplish colour, 

 lias the form of Phaseolus, but is distinguished from that genus by 

 two special characters, namely that it has the style developed beyond 

 the stigma backwards as a broad, flat, hooked appendage,^ and the seeds 

 half surrounded by a deeply grooved hiium. 



History— The pagan tribes of Tropical Western Africa compel per- 

 sons accused of witchcraft to undero-o the ordeal of swallowing some 



o- — - o 



vegetable poison. One of the substances employed in this horrid 

 custom is the seed under notice, which is administered in substance or 

 |n the form of emulsion, or even as a clyster. It was first made known 

 in England by Dr. W. F. Daniell about the year 1 840, and subsequently 

 aUded to in a paper read by him before the Ethnological Society in 

 1846.2 The highly poisonous effects of the bean were observed in 

 I80.5 by Christisons in his own person, and in 1858 by Sharpey, who 

 admmistered it to fr.^„. 



Before the seed be'came an object of commerce, it was regarded by 

 wie natives with some mystery and was reluctantly parted with to 

 Y^'opeans. It was moreover customary in Old Calabar to destroy the 

 P'imt whenever found, a few only being reserved to supply seeds for 

 judicial purposes, and of these seeds the store was kept in the custody 

 ^i the native chief. In 1859, the Eev. W. C. Thomson, a missionary 

 on tlie West Coast of Africa, forwarded the plant to Professor Balfour 

 ^ ^clniburgh, who fi<rured and described it as a type of a new 



ogs. 



genus. 



.4 ^ ' - "O 



Fraser of Edinburgh (about 1863 or earlier) discovered the specific 

 !,^^,?^^f the seed in contracting the pupil, when the alcoholic extract is 

 ' PPiied to the eye. These myotic effects, counteracting those of atropme 



bWder ^'""^ "^ th<? genus, from <piou, a =' Edlnb. Journ. of Medical Sconce, xx. 



this an • rf ^'''^'"^^^ ""f^^r the notion that (1855) 193; Pharm. Journ xiv. {185o 4,0 

 fact i?P"f'age 13 hoUow, wldch is not the * Trans. Boy. Sac. of Lduih xxu (1801) 



fj^m At„?" • ''^'^"'*^''««P«™>^iWelwitsch, 305. t. 16-17 ; sec also Baillon,7y/<t^c'' 



•"^ee Htrnf '^' A", probably the same plant. Phwte^ ii. 2UG. fig?. 153-15o, and Beutley 



* £,/ ,^ V/^^''^™- J- ix. (1879) 913. and Trimen, Med. Plants, part G (ISiC). 



