ON THE KOLA-NUT OF TROPICAL "WEST AFRICA. 
455 
pursued, by the caravans returning from the coastal districts, to Kano, and other 
marts of Central Africa, the leaf of a species of Phrynium , or other succulent 
plant, being resorted to for a similar purpose. For it is well known that if 
they are permitted to become dry and shrivelled, they lose, not only their mer¬ 
cantile demand, but a considerable portion of their bitterness. In this condition 
they are termed in Tripoli, Kowda , and are held to be of inferior estimation. 
According to Lyons, the seeds in their fresh state sell in Fezzan, at the rate of 
four per dollar, a price that virtually precludes their enjoyment by the poorer 1 
classes of people. These so valued luxuries are offered to visitors as a substitute 
for coffee, being handed round on salvers ; hence the frequent application of the 
title, the coffee of the blacks, or of Soudan, bestowed on them. If some of the na¬ 
tive reports be trusted, when in former years a great scarcity of this fruit pre¬ 
vailed, owing to a long-continued dearth, so difficult was it to procure a few of 
the nuts, that a slave was frequently given in exchange for one. 
Denham, Clapperton, and the more recent travellers Richardson, Barth, etc., 
who have traversed many extensive kingdoms of Central Africa, likewise fur¬ 
nish incidental notices of this popular tonic, and stomachic. The last-named 
traveller has, however, entered more fully into the details of the subject, 
stating that they were considered the greatest luxuries that negro-land, or 
Soudan, could afford, and as articles of trade, were daily increasing in impor¬ 
tance, as might be gleaned from the fact, that they comprehended, with gold 
dust and salt, the three staple commodities, that supplied and governed the 
markets of Timbuktu. A few imperfect outlines respecting their botanical 
origin, renders it necessary that I should revert to his statements in a future 
portion of this paper. 
My knowledge of the tonic and astringent properties of the Ivola-seeds, com¬ 
mences so far back as 1850, when in garrison at Fort Christiansburg, on the 
Gold Coast, West Africa, then but recently transferred to the British crown. 
With other diseases endemic to the settlement, a particular form of diarrhoea 
often prevailed among the European population, caused more by local relaxa¬ 
tion of the mucous membranes and other visceral structures, than from consti¬ 
tutional debility. For its cure, the white inhabitants were in the habit of ad¬ 
ministering a decoction of the fresh seeds, and with apparent benefit. Experi¬ 
encing a similar form of attack, I w r as relieved by resorting to the same remedy. 
This affection having supervened whilst recently residing in Jamaica, I fol¬ 
lowed the same system of treatment; but, much to my surprise, on taking the 
medicine late, two evenings in succession, found that I was deprived of sleep, 
during the remainder of the night. Uncertain whether this insomnia proceeded 
from some temporary constitutional idiosyncrasy, or an inherent peculiarity 
belonging to the fresh seeds, I intermitted taking the decoction for a few days, 
and with the intermission, the natural rest returned ; on again continuing the 
medicine in the evening, I invariably found its administration attended, more or 
less, with loss of sleep. I was then reminded how practically verified (after the 
lapse of two centuries,) w r ere the quaint remarks of Dapper, one of our enter¬ 
prising African voyagers, who announced that the seeds, “asexperience teacheth, 
eaten in the evening hindreth sleep.”*' This singular and ’well-developed phe¬ 
nomenon, the result of a powerful stimulant on the brain and nervous system, 
produced by some elementary principle analogous to caffeine, or theine, led me 
to infer from physiological induction, that an analysis of the seeds would readily 
determine this point in the affirmative. Following the process commonly in vogue 
for obtaining theine, from other plants, viz. by mixing with a strong decoction of 
the fresh nuts, acetate of lead to preoipitate the astringent principle, and then 
* Ogi Ivy’s Africa, -p. iGl. 
