TEE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 173 



Dr. Lyon also includes this tree aipong the abortifacients. These 

 papers of mine on the poisonous plants of Bombay are essentially 

 supplementary to Dr. Lyons' standard work on Medical Jurisprudence, 

 which in a great measure may be said to be the originator of these my 

 contributions to the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 



On the authority of that veteran scholar, Rai Bahadur Kannya Lall 

 Dey, c. I. e., who to his extensive knowledge of the botany of India 

 adds the acumen of a careful observer, Dr. Norman Chevers makes 

 the following remarks regarding the Moringa plant* : — " A piece of 

 Sujna bark " (Sujna is the Bengal name for Shegat. — K.R.K.) " about 

 half an ounce in weight, is pounded with twerity-one black 

 pepper-corns, made into a paste and swallowed to procure abortion. 

 This is said to be a very dangerous means, as the woman, as a rule, 

 dies with the foetus." I may observe that, as stated before, the external 

 application of the pounded bark has succeeded in expelling the foetus, 

 but has left the mother uninjured and fit to be tried in a court of law 

 for foeticide. Dr. Norman Chevers further observes that " in all the 

 cases where the application of the substance per vaginam is required, 

 a good amount of tact and skill is needed on the part of the applier." 



Be it noted here that, in communicating this valuable information to 

 Dr. Chevers, Rai Bahadur Kannya Lall Dey observes that he has obtain- 

 ed these facts regarding the various modes of producing abortion in 

 use near Calcutta by paying a woman who is perfectly conversant 

 with the practice. Dr. Norman Chevers further says that " he speaks 

 confidently of the statements of Kannya Lall Dey as facts, because he 

 finds them to be perfectly in accordance with nearly all that he had 

 previously learnt on the subject." 



To pursue the subject further and enter into the question of the 

 physiological action of the bark on the gravid uterus would be perhaps 

 groping in the dark, inasmuch as what is as yet known about the 

 abortive properties of the bark is more in a general way than as the 

 result of physiological or clinical investigation. In other words, it 

 is not known whether the bark produces tonic or clonic contraction 

 of the uterus. It is known as an emmenagogue ; and what is an 

 emmenagogue in small doses, may prove, and has proved, aborti- 



* N. Chevers' Medical Jurisprudence, p. 716, 1870. 



