lOO TWEXTY-FIVE YEARS OF CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION. 



in the case of a dog, within thirty minutes, the heart, after 

 death, being distended and engorged, and the muscular tissue 

 flabby. Further chemical examination of the bulb showed that 

 the active principle was apparently a glucoside and identical 

 with one found in another unidentified bulb from the same 

 district (Tsolo) five years previously.* So violent had been 

 the emetic effect upon a woman, whose death in 1908 resulted 

 in the investigation being taken up, that her spleen was ruptured 

 during the paroxysms. 



A plant stated to be a species of Helichrysum, but which 

 it was at the time impossible to identify more precisely, was 

 procured from EUiotdale in 1908 for the purpose of investi- 

 gating its supposed toxic properties. Here again an acrid 

 resinous body was found, and definite chemical properties re- 

 corded. A peculiar nauseating odour was evolved on heating 

 with water. Physiologically the active principle of the plant 

 was found to act as a depressant, coupled with emetic and slight 

 purgative properties, without any striking toxic effect. More- 

 over, there has hitherto been no definite evidence of any human 

 fatality in consequence of administration of the plant in ques- 

 tion. Two years later, in the roots and tubers of Aster hispidus 

 Bak. (Diplopappus asper Less), known by the Bizana natives 

 as nozixckana and in EUiotdale as intshckisana, an acrid resinous 

 substance was discovered amounting in the air-dried material to 

 nearly .19 per cent. The plant proved to belong to the same 

 species as that investigated in 1908, and physiological experi- 

 ments were again made with precisely similar results. The 

 chemical reactions, too, were identical with those of the plant 

 already mentioned. 



About the same time last year a plant known to natives as 

 moniuza, and identified as Knotvltoiiia hracteata, was the subject 

 of some investigation. The plant belongs to a genus the species 

 of which are extremely acrid, and the coimmonest are popular 

 colonial remedies for rheumatism, f A fairly large proportion 

 of a resinous body possessing very characteristic chemical re- 

 actions was obtained from this plant, but physiological tests did 

 not produce any apparent effects. 



Decoctions prepared from Bowiea I'olubilis Harv. had been 

 found to result fatally in the case of human beings, and some 

 specimens of the plant were accordingly submitted to chemical 

 examination. An acrid substance was extracted, and it proved 

 to act as an irritant poison and a strong emetic. Sufficient of 

 the plant could not be procured to admit of any definite opinion 

 being advanced as to the presence of an alkaloid or a glucoside, 

 but there was no very characteristic chemical reaction observable. 



SmithJ mentions the South African beetle Mylabris hifasciata 

 as deserving of export for blistering purposes, and predicts that 

 it will supersede the Spanish Cantharis vesicatoria in certain 



* See " Notes on S-A. Pharmacology," p- 130- 



t Harvey and Sonder, " Flora Capensis," vol. i, p- 4. 



% " S-A. Materia Medica," p. 230. 



