98 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
poison well known to the natives and is employed especially in the trial by ordeal, 
which will be described later. It is an irritant poison producing vomiting, purg- 
ing, and collapse. 
Capsicum has also been employed for producing burning in the stomach, 
vomiting, colic, and diarrhoea. 
Gloriosa superba (No. 143) of the Liliaceae also produces a well known poison, 
of which the active principle is superbine, which has an action somewhat similar 
to that of scillin. The plant, however, sometimes has an action resembling that 
of aconite, the symptoms of which may appear in a half hour, and may consist 
of a tingling of the lips and throat, retching, violent vomiting, with spasms and 
contortions of the body, racking pain, cardiac depression, and collapse. Death 
may take place within a few hours. Autopsy discloses congestion of the brain 
and meninges, and sometimes extravasations of blood, congestion of the viscera, 
and an inflammatory condition of the mucous membranes of the stomach. In 
the Far East Gloriosa superba is often employed as an abortifacient. 
Hall and Whitehead ! have recently studied the poison on a few arrows of the 
East African Heikum tribes. They found no evidence of alkaloidal poison on 
the arrows. The crystalline product obtained was, however, toxic for frogs, 
guinea pigs, and cats, and caused death by stopping the heart in marked ventric- 
ular systole. It could not be identified with any known poison but in some 
respects resembled the glucoside Ouabain. Anaerobic bacilli, such as B. histo- 
lyticus and B. Welchi, and several other micro-organisms were also found on the 
arrows. Neither B. tetanus nor B. botulinus were found. ‘The investigators call 
attention to the fact that most wounds are likely to be infected with bacteria. 
Peirrier ” has recently studied a number of poisons used by the natives in the 
Cameroons. Among them is one called N’Sou, which consisted of leopard’s 
feelers cut small and impregnated with an extract made from a mixture of vege- 
table poisons. It is said that the hairs are spread on the victim’s chair or bed, 
that the poison enters through unnoticed lesions which may be present on the 
skin, and that death follows in from six to twelve hours. According to the 
author’s analysis a number of different ingredients were present in the extract. 
Two were of animal origin. One was from a venomous toad, the whole of which 
had been dried and pulverized. The venom of the toad contains two alkaloids, 
one of which acts like digitalin, and the other paralyzes the muscles. A black 
scorpion of the genus Buthus was also employed in preparing the poison. 
Of the vegetable poisons present one was Erythrophloeum guineense. Peirrier 
says that when this poison is used in the trial by ordeal Strychnos bark is often 
added. Another poison is known as Bottoto. It is made from the bark of a tree, 
and will kill a dog with tetanic convulsions. He suggests that the active prin- 
ciple of this poison is curare, furnished by Strychnos Icaja. From this bark, he 
says, the fetish men prepare a concoction which is employed in trial by ordeal. 
The patient is told to jump over a stick half a meter from the ground. If paraly- 
sis prevents him, he is judged guilty. 
1 Hall and Whitehead: Jour. Infect. Dis. (1927), XLI, 51. 
2 Peirrier: Ann. de Méd. et de Pharm. Colon. (1928), X XVI, 299. 
