52 4 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[[January 4, 18'.3. 
time during the months preceding the first rains of the 
season (October and November). The fruit is ripe in 
June, and collected by the natives, who separate the 
rough outer coat before drying it, preserving the more 
leathery inner covering and the seeds.”* 
Dr. Livingstone gives some interesting information 
regarding the poison in his ‘ Narrative of an Expedition 
to the Zambesi and its Tributaries.’ He mentions that 
arrows poisoned with it are used for killing wild animals 
only; arrows destined for the more noble object of 
killing men being poisoned with the entrails of a small 
caterpillar. Dr. Livingstone says that in hunting, the 
natives follow the game with great perseverance and 
cunning : “ The arrow, making no noise, the herd is fol¬ 
lowed until the poison takes effect, and the wounded 
animal falls out; it is then patiently watched till it 
drops; a portion of meat round the wound is cut away, 
and all the rest eaten ” (p. 465). 
Dr. Livingstone also says that the poisoned arrows are 
made in two pieces. “ An iron barb is firmly fastened to 
one end of a small wand of wood, ten inches or a foot 
long, the other end of which, fined down to a long point, 
is nicely fitted, though not otherwise secured, in the 
hollow of the reed which forms the arrow-shaft. The 
wood immediately below the iron head is smeared with 
the poison. When the arrow is shot into an animal, the 
reed either falls to the ground at once, or is very soon 
brushed off by the bushes ; but the iron barb and poi¬ 
soned upper part of the wood remain in the wound. If 
made in one piece, the arrow would often be torn out, 
head and all, by the long shaft catching in the under¬ 
wood, and striking against trees” (p. 466).f 
It would appear that this arrow-poison is widely dis¬ 
tributed over Africa, for it has been found not only at 
Kombe, on the west coast near the equator, and in the 
Manganja country, near the Zambesi at the south-east of 
Africa, but also in the Gaboon district,X in Guinea,§ and 
in Senogambia.|| In the Gaboon district it seems to be 
called Inee, Onaye, or Onage.** 
The follicles examined by the author vary in length 
from about nine and three-fourths to about twelve and 
one-fourth inches, and in greatest thickness from about 
one inch to three-fourths of an inch, and they vary in 
weight from about 130 to 330 grains. They contain 
from 100 to 200 seeds, each of which weighs about half- 
a-grain, and ha3 attached to it a beautiful comose ap¬ 
pendix, placed on an extremely brittle stalk. At first, 
Professor Oliver, of Kew, to whom the plant was sub¬ 
mitted for identification, referred it to Strophanthus his- 
pidus, DC., natural order Apocynaceco , but he was led, by 
a further examination of the botanical characters of the 
Kombe-poison plant, to doubt its identity with 8. his- 
pidus; and, accordingly, he has described it in the 
‘leones Plantarum,’ No. 4. 1870, under the name of 
8. Kombe. 
When the seeds contained in the follicles are bruised 
and treated in a percolator with rectified spirit, a green¬ 
ish-yellow tincture is obtained. By distilling off the 
greater part of the spirit, and drying the residue on a 
water-bath and in the exhausted receiver of an air- 
pump, an extract is procured which weighs about 25 per 
cent, of the seeds employed, has an intensely bitter taste, 
and contains about one-half of its weight of an inert fixed 
* Extract from letter to Professor Skarpey, dated January 
1st, 1864. 
f Specimens of these arrows, which had been presented to 
Professor Maclagan by Dr. Kirk, were exhibited to the 
society. 
X Pelikan, ‘Archives Generates de Medecine,’ Juillet, 
1865, p. 115. 
§ Yan Hasselfc, ‘Archives Neerlandaises des Sciences,’ 
vol. vii. 1872, p. 161. 
|| Baillon, quoted by Polaillon and Carville, ‘ Archives de 
Physiologic,’ No. 5, 1872, p. 526. 
** Baillon, loc. cit. 
oil.* From this extract Dr. Fraser succeeded in sepa¬ 
rating a very powerful active principle, w T hich he pro¬ 
poses should be named strophanthin. 
The physiological action of this active principle is of 
the same character as that of the extract. 
When a small dose (one-twentieth of a grain) of this 
extract is mixed with a few minims of water, and 
injected under the skin of a frog, no distinct symptom is 
seen until about half an hour, when the animal’s move¬ 
ments become somewhat sluggish. Soon afterwards the 
respirations cease, some stiffness occurs in the thoracic 
extremities, reflex sensibility diminishes, some stiffness 
appears in the pelvic extremities, and in about two hours 
after the administration voluntary movements entirely 
cease, and strong galvanic irritation produces no effect, 
even when applied to exposed muscles and nerves. An 
examination of the heart shows that it is completely 
paralysed, the ventricle being pale and contracted, while 
the auricles are dark and distended. 
As the result of many experiments under varying 
conditions, Dr. Fraser is of opinion that (1) Strophan¬ 
thus acts primarily upon the heart, and produces, as the 
final result of this action, paralysis of that organ with 
permanence of the ventricular systole; (2) Pulmonary 
respiration continues in cold-blooded animals for several 
minutes after the heart is paralysed; (3) The striped 
muscles of the body are acted upon: twitches occur in 
them; their tonicity is exaggerated ; and, finally, their 
functional activity is destroyed, the muscles being then 
hard, and, soon afterwards, acid in reaction; (4) The 
reflex function of the spinal-cord is suspended soon after 
the heart is paralysed ; but the motor conductivity of 
the spinal-cord and of the nerve-trunks continues after 
the striped muscles of the body are paralysed ; (5) The 
lymph-hearts of the frog continue to contract for many 
minutes after the blood-heart has been paralysed. 
TEE HISTORY OF OZONE, f 
BY PROFESSOR ODLING, F.R.S. 
The most important points in the history of ozone are 
the following :—I. Its recognition as a distinct variety 
of matter or substance, by Schbnbein in 1840. II. An 
inquiry into its nature, made by Marignac in 1845, 
whereby it w r as established that the action of ozone on 
various substances results simply in their oxidation. 
III. The evidence of different kinds, accumulated by 
many observers during a period extending from 1845 to 
1863, that the matter of ozone is identical with the matter 
of oxygen. IY. The demonstration by Andrews and 
Tait in 1860, that ozone is a condensed form of oxygen. 
V. The recognition by Andrews and Tait in 1860, and 
interpretation by Odling in 1861, of the singular fact 
that, in certain cases, the removal of its constituent ozone 
from a mixture of ozone and oxygen is unattended by any 
alteration in the volume of the gas, notwithstanding the 
considerable oxidation effected by it. VI. The study of 
the quantitative reactions of ozone by Brodie in 1872 ; 
and his establishment of the relationship of ozone to 
ordinary oxygen, in corroboration of some less exact 
results obtained by Soret in 1865, as also of a suggestion 
made by the speaker in 1861. 
I. Ozone was discovered by Schonbein, in 1840, when 
experimenting with the then newly-invented battery of 
Sir Wm. Grove,—an instrument still recognized as yield¬ 
ing a current superior, in respect of joint quantity and 
intensity, to the current yielded by any other electro¬ 
motor available for general use. Ozone was recognized 
* Microscopic examination shows that this extract con¬ 
tains a large number of aeicular crystals; and when the fatty 
matters are removed from it by ether, a hygroscopic sub¬ 
stance is obtained, which consist in great paid of crystals. 
f Paper read at the Royal Institution, Friday, June 7,1872 
