480 CALABAR BEAN AS AN OPHTHALMIC MEDICINE. 
be numerous enough to minister to the wants of his chief 
creature^ man. To interfere with this grand and beneficent 
arrangement by the gratuitous and wanton destruction of 
animal life, is tlie most senseless species of meddling of which 
man can be guilty, and is sure to result in the defeat of the 
very purpose it was intended to further. lu the matter of 
the birds this has been proved beyond a doubt, and 
additional evidence is being daily furnished of the fact. 
Where the birds have been poisoned off, the wireworm 
and the fly are desolating the field crops ; and the farmers 
are compelled to hire boys and girls to do ineffectually 
what the birds once did for them gratuitously and well. 
In our gardens, the plague of insects is now felt to be far 
greater than it was in former years ; and every horticulturist 
who competes for a prize knows too well that his chance of 
success depends not only on the excellence and treatment of 
his plant, but also on his preserving it by constant watching 
against the assaults of grubs and caterpillars. 
“ We might say much more, but we forbear; we have only 
said thus much in the hope of checking, if it may be, a sad 
crime, which is also a sad blunder, and of freeing our friends 
and favorites the small birds from unmerited persecution.” 
ON THE CALABAR BEAN AS A NEW AGENT IN 
OPHTHALMIC MEDICINE. 
In the TJiarmaceniicalJoitrnal, vol. xiv, p. 470, will be found 
an interesting paper by Dr. Christison, on the general pro¬ 
perties of the Ordeal Bean of Old Calabar,” and quite 
recently Dr. Argyll Robertson [Edinburgh Medical Journal^ 
March, 1863) has investigated its properties as a new agent 
in ophthalmic medicine. Dr. Robertson observes :—“ For 
more than a year past I have recognised the numerous advan¬ 
tages that would flow from the discovery of a substance which, 
when applied to the conjunctiva, should produce effects 
exactly opposite to those well known to result from bella¬ 
donna or atropine ; which should stimulate the muscle of 
accommodation and the sphincter pupillae as the above- 
named remedies paralyse them. With the view of discovering 
such an agent, I endeavoured to ascertain from experiments 
of mv own, and from the writings of previous observers, 
whether any of the common vegetable principles possessed 
this property. These investigations were, however, pro¬ 
ductive of no satisfactory results, until my friend, Dr. Fraser, 
