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304 ON THE TANGHINIA VENENIFLUA. 
bears a large quantity of fruit. The fruit is at first (when grown to 
its full size) of a green colour, then changes to a purplish-red tinge 
on one side, but, when fully ripe, becomes wrinkled, and the entire 
fruit assumes a deep purplish-red colour. The whole of the tree yields 
a quantity of milky juice, very adhesive (which probably arises from 
containing caoutchouc) and of a sweet creamy taste. 
Respecting the toxicological properties of this tree, it is mentioned 
in a paper published by Professor Pelikan in 1860, that its most 
poisonous part is the fruit; he had an alcoholic extract prepared from 
the leaves and stalks of the plant, and, aided by Professor Kölliker, 
experimented with it on frogs. The experiments proved that it does 
not belong to tetanic poisons. Its effect is particularly directed upon 
the heart, the action of which it paralyses, leaving the ventricles in a 
bloodless condition. This effect is a direct one, and not brought 
about merely by the medulla oblongata and the spinal marrow. Se- 
condarily, it paralyses the motor nerves in the direction from the 
centre towards the periphery ; tertiarily, it paralyses the muscles of 
voluntary motion. The Zunghinia is thus to be considered a specific 
poison for the heart and muscles; it paralyses the muscles less rapidly 
than upas, veratrine, and sulphocyanide of potassium, but in regard to 
its paralysing action upon the heart, surpasses considerably the two 
other poisons, veratrine and sulphocyanide of potassium. 
“Like the savages of Madagascar, our ancestors were great be- 
lievers in witchcraft; that old superstition of the darker ages which 
led our pious forefathers to burn or drown harmless old women, and 
count it a righteous deed so to do,” but abolished by them as edu- 
cation progressed. It now remains among the savages of Mada- 
gascar, who, for this and other crimes, use the Ordeal-nut, and it 
is regarded by them as an infallible detector of guilt. The portion 
used in the Ordeal is the kernel of the fruit, which is pounded before 
being administered to the accused person; should it cause vomiting, 
the accused person escapes, but to those by whom it is retained, it 
proves rapidly fatal and thereby their guilt is considered to be esta- 
blished. The operation of the poison in the Ordeal differs, sometimes 
acting as a virulent poison, generally as an emetic. In one published 
account it is stated that “a difference visible even to the naked eye 
does exist between that which only occasions vomiting and that which 
destroys ; the latter always presenting a slight appearance of redness. 
