ON THE PHYSlOLOCxICAL ACTION OF THE 

 BARK OF ERYTHROPHLEUM GUINENSE, 

 GENERALLY CALLED CASCA, CASSA, OR 

 SASSY BARK. 



In conjunction with WALTEE PYE. 



(From Fhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. clxrii, part 2.) 

 Keceived and read June lotli, 187G. 



Several months ago we received from Mr. Monteiro a piece 

 of Casca bark, which he had obtained with great difficulty from 

 a native at Bembe during his residence in Angola. Tliis bark 

 is used by the natives as an ordeal, persons suspected of theft, 

 Avitch craft, or other crimes being made to drink an infusion of 

 it. If it causes vomiting only, the person is acquitted ; but if 

 it causes purging, he is considered to be guilty, and is either 

 allowed to die of the poison or at once killed. Among somo 

 tribes a practice prevails of making the accused, after drinking 

 the infusion, walk in a stooping posture under half a dozen low 

 arches made by bending switches and sticking both ends into 

 the ground. Should he fall down in passing under any of the 

 arches, he is at once considered guilty, and, without waiting for 

 a purgative effect to be produced, he is at once put to death. 



All the natives agree in their description of the effect pro- 

 duced on a person poisoned by this bark. His limbs are first 

 affected, and he loses all power over them, falls to the ground, 

 and dies quickly, without much apparent suffering. 



The same bark, or one having precisely similar effects, is used 

 as an ordeal in Sierra Leone, under the name of "red- water 

 bark," and in Ashantee, under the name of " doom." In both 

 these places the test of vomiting or purging only seems to be 

 employed, and not that of stumbling, as described by Mr. Mon- 

 teiro ; but according to C. A. Santos, the missionaries describe 

 the bark as causing vomiting, glazing of the eyes, and loss of 



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