THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 3G3 



into the vagina and applied directly to the neck of the uterus." To 

 this observation of Dr. O'Shaughnessy, Dr. Norman Chevers adds a 

 note* that the root of Plumbago rosea is frequently used with far more 

 violence than is described by Dr. O'Shaughnessy. Referring to Dr. 

 Norman Chevers' remarks on criminal abortion,! I find that Rai 

 Bahadur Kannya Lall Dey affords him valuable information regard- 

 ing the use of chitrak (red variety) for the purpose of procuring 

 abortion. In a document the Rai Bahadur handed over to Dr. Norman 

 Chevers, as the doctor's work was going to press, the veteran Babu 

 says in unmistakeable language that lal chitra (the Bengali name 

 of lal chitrak or tambdd chitrak as called in Western India), 

 " is very certain in its action ; producing shivering almost immediately 

 after the application, followed by abortion in two or three hours ; and 

 it may be used at all periods of pregnancy, still the foetus is always 

 expelled lifeless, and the woman is in great danger." Such is also the 

 experience of Dr. Allen Webb. Apart from this directly local use of 

 the root of Plumbago rosea on the generative organs, Dr. O'Shaugh- 

 nessy has shown that it is administered internally, that is to say, by the 

 stomach to cause abortion. In support of this Dr. Norman Chevers 

 cites a fatal case mentioned to him by Kannya Lall Dey which occurred 

 in 1857, and in which a mixture of chitrak root and some arsenic was 

 administered to a girl for the purpose of making her abort.J The 

 indigenous writers I have mentioned above, are totally silent as regards 

 the abortifacient quality of the root of chitrak. Chakradatta, as quoted 

 by Udoy Chandra Dutt,§ is the only ancient Hindu authority who states 

 that Plumbago rosea has a specific action on the uterus. " The root of 

 Plumbago rosea," says he, " taken internally, will expel the foetus from 

 the womb whether dead or alive." Dr. Lyon, as Chemical Analyser 

 to Government, Bombay, refers [| to a case from Sangamner, in which 

 " some pieces of stick, stated to have been used for the purpose of 

 procuring abortion 3 were found to be armed at the end with cotton 

 covered with a paste in which, on chemical examination, Plumbagin, 



* Medical Jurisprudence, p. 251, 1870. 



+ Medical Jurisprudence, pp. 712 — 19, 1870. 



J Dr. Norman Chevers' Medical Jurisprudence, p. 116, 1870. 



§ The Materia Medica of the Hindus, p. 187, 1877. 



|| Report for the year 1881-82, p. 11, 



