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Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



which yielded the following results with some of the well-known 

 tests for alkaloids : — 



Picric Acid Yellowish-white precipitate. 



Phospho-molybdic Acid Curdy-white precipitate. 



Scheibler's reagent Amorphous white precipitate. 



Wagner's reagent Slight red precipitate. 



Mayer's reagent White precipitate. 



Marine's reagent White precipitate. 



Dragendorff' s reagent Slight red precipitate. 



Gold chloride Faint precipitate. 



Platinum chloride Whitish flocculent precipitate. 



Some of this chloroform residue was given to a dog and produced 

 emesis within seven minutes. The amount, however, of the active 

 principle which was left in the stomach and in the portion of the 

 liquid subsequently given to the dog must have been very minute, 

 seeing that the child had vomited three times before death. 

 Decoctions of the packets of plant material received were prepared 

 and administered to the dog in fairly large doses without any effect : 

 apparently, therefore, they did not contain the plant used by the 

 " Kaffir doctor." Judging from the physiological effects produced 

 on the deceased child, and from the results of the analysis, it was 

 surmised that the drug used may have been Acocanthera venenata. 

 Here again it was a pity that the ejected matter had not been 

 preserved for analysis, nor the condition of the deceased's heart 

 noted. 



Another year passed ere a further case of similar nature afforded 

 an opportunity for further progress. To a native child, at Glen 

 Grey, who was, to all appearances in good health, a " Kaffir 

 doctor " was for some obscure reason called in by the mother. The 

 ''doctor" administered a drug which caused speedy death. The 

 post-mortem examination revealed the fact that death was apparently 

 due to the arrest of the heart in systole. My attention was by this 

 circumstance at once directed to Acocanthera, the plant being well 

 known in the district, and reported to act precisely in the way 

 described, the effect on the heart being powerfully contractive. 

 Similar cases are recorded by Smith,* who also mentions Fraser's 

 description of the manner in which this action on the muscle of the 

 heart is caused by the plant.! 



This was the first instance that had come under my notice, in 

 which the circumstances of death clearly pointed in the direction of 

 poisoning by Acocanthera : in nearly every previous case there had 



* " South African Materia Medica," 3rd ed., p. 38. 

 f Op. cit., p. 39. 



