312 ORDEAL BKAN OF CALABAR. 



1862. amis of commerce, yet from its agreement in structure 

 the latter may still be a species of Canella, appears to give room 

 to a doubt whether generally Cortex Canellce albce may be legi- 

 timately attributed to Canella alba, Murr. This doubt I cannot 

 share with Henkel, for I have received specimens of barks of 

 Canella alba from the Bahamas and Jamaica, which show con- 

 vincingly that the common opinion maintained amongst phar- 

 macologists on this point is well founded. 



NOTE ON THE OKDEAL BEAN OF CALABAR 

 (Physostigma Venenosum, Balf.) 



1863. THE recent experiments of Drs. Argyll .Robertson, Eraser, 

 Stewart, Messrs. Bowman, Wells, and others on the Ordeal Bean 

 of Calabar, 1 and the fact elicited by these experiments, that it 

 possesses the peculiar power of causing the sphincter pupilhe 

 and ciliary muscle to contract, render it probable that this re- 

 markable seed will find a useful application in ophthalmic 

 medicine ; and the present moment is therefore appropriate for 

 reviewing some of the facts hitherto ascertained respecting it. 



The first important notice on the subject is contained in a 

 Dr. Christi- most interesting and valuable paper by Dr. Christison, read 

 son's re- before the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh, 5th February 1855. In 

 this paper the author, after alluding to various vegetable sub- 

 stances used by the -natives of tropical Western Africa in 

 ordeal by poison, describes as one of pre-eminent virulence, a 

 Esere. large leguminous seed called Estre used by the negroes of Old 

 Calabar in the Gulf of Guinea. This seed, which Dr. Christison 

 called the Ordeal Bean of Old Calabar, and the botanical origin 

 of which was at that time unknown, was the subject of some 

 remarkable toxicological experiments which amply proved it to 

 possess powers of no ordinary character. Dr. Christison also 

 made some experiments on the seed with the view of isolating 

 its active proximate principle, but was unsuccessful, partly owing, 

 it is probable, to the limited amount of material at his disposal. 



i Edinburgh Medical Journ., March 1863 ; Medical Times and Gazette, 

 May 16, 186:3. 



