74 
Proceedings of Boyctl Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
Subsequently, however, to the communication of 1885, upon the 
therapeutical applications of the substance, the literature of the 
subject has rapidly increased, and it now embraces about a hundred 
separate papers, the greater number of which deal with its uses in 
the treatment of disease. 
Until 1885, also, Strophanthus, elsewhere than in Africa, was a 
mere curiosity, represented in a few museums in Europe by speci- 
mens of its flowers and fruit. Since that time, it has become a not 
inconsiderable article of commerce, several tons of the seeds having 
been exported from Africa by London merchants alone, in order to 
supply the requirements of medical practice. 
In the present paper it is proposed to give an account of the 
observations that have been made by the author on the natural 
history, chemistry, and pharmacology (or physiological action) of 
Strophanthus, but to-night only the first of the above subdivisions 
of the subject would be dealt with. 
In nearly every narrative of exploration in uncivilised tropical 
regions, accounts are given of poisonous substances, which in many 
instances are stated to possess remarkable properties. Usually these 
poisons are of vegetable origin, and nearly all of them may be in- 
cluded in the two great divisions of Ordeal and of Arrow poisons. 
Among the most interesting of the Ordeal poisons are the Physo- 
stigma venenosum and the Akazga or Akaja of West Africa, the 
Sassy or Muave of wide distribution over Africa, and the Tanghinia 
venifera of Madagascar : and of the Arrow poisons, the Antiaris 
toxicaria and Strychnos Tieute of Java, the Aconitum ferox of 
China, and the famous Wourali or Carare poison of South America. 
It is to the enterprise and observation of explorers and travellers 
that we are indebted for the first knowledge of the Strophanthus 
Kombe-poison. The first specimens of the plant that reached 
Edinburgh appear to have been a few ripe follicles sent to Sir 
Eobert Christison early in 1869, by the Rev. Horace Waller, who 
had been a member of the Oxford and Cambridge Universities’ 
Mission of 1861-62, superintended by the late Bishop Mackenzie, 
with whom had been associated, during the operations of the Mission 
in the country between the river Shire and the lake Shirwa, the 
famous traveller Livingstone and the enterprising botanist Kirk, at 
that time H.M. Consul at Zanzibar. Mr Waller informs me that, 
