118 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



Apomorphine hypodermically injected was used successfully as 

 an emetic. Three hours after this treatment both showed distinct 

 signs of recovery, but they still jerked spasmodically. Three hours 

 later the patients were doing well. Mustard had also been used 

 as an emetic, and to some extent its presence must have masked 

 the reactions of any other active principle contained in the ejected 

 material. Contrary, however, to Mr. Meiring's experience, no 

 definite reactions were noticed on treating the different residues 

 with the well-known alkaloidal reagents : on the other hand, a 

 very small quantity of an essential oil, having a very characteristic 

 peppermint-like odour, was isolated. Unfortunately there was far 

 too little of the oil to enable any decisive statement to be made, 

 but there was nevertheless a striking resemblance between it and 

 an oil which apparently exists in the Mcsembrianthemum. Mr. 

 Meiring, by injecting his alkaloid into frogs, states that the effect 

 is markedly narcotic. The question arises whether this plant does 

 not contain two active principles, the physiological effects and 

 chemical reactions of which differ. 



It is well known that several allied poisonous principles frequently 

 occur together in one plant : I need go no further than to mention 

 the alkaloids of opium as instances of this, but the simultaneous 

 occurrence of alkaloids and essential oils of this nature, and of 

 alkaloids and glucosides, is more uncommon. 



This brings me to mention a plant that has repeatedly been 

 brought into prominence in connection with investigations into 

 chemico-legal cases in the Colony : I allude to Acocanthera venenata, 

 Don, Harvey's Toxicophlaa Thunbergii. To this plant I shall return 

 at a later stage. 



Unfortunately for the study of the physiological action of our 

 indigenous plant poisons, in most of the cases the symptoms noted 

 must receive allowance on account of the fact that the persons 

 to whom the drugs have been administered were in a bad state of 

 health. To take one instance : a Kaffir woman, in the Glen Grey 

 district, aged between 50 and 60, was made to drink the powdered 

 root of a certain plant mixed with water. The mixture produced 

 an immediate emetic effect terminating fatally. Post-mortem 

 examination showed that the deceased had suffered from valvular 

 heart disease, enlargement of the liver, and general constitutional 

 derangement. The ejected material was not forwarded for analysis, 

 and the stomach itself, having been practically emptied, afforded 

 little information as to the nature of the supposed poison. How- 

 ever, the tests applied produced the same reactions both in the 

 stomach and in the roots which were supposed to be the direct 



