302 
OBSERVATIONS ON SASSY BARK. 
to obtain for me, through his friend Dr. McGill, specimens of the 
leaves, flowers, and fruit of the sassy tree. About nine months 
ago a box was received from Liberia containing the leaves, fruit, 
twigs, wood and bark of the sassy tree, but the flowers, the most 
important part, w T ere omitted, as the tree was then in fruit. As 
the flowers then promised have not yet arrived, I have concluded 
to publish what facts have been collected from travellers, to- 
gether with those derived from an examination of the specimens. 
The tree producing sassy bark has not been described in any 
of the botanical works in the library of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia, including DeCandolle, Lindley and 
Endlicher, and in the narratives of travellers so little attention has 
been given to the means of identifying it, that the specimens 
themselves, imperfect as they are in the absence of the flowers, 
will afford more light than can be obtained from any other availa- 
ble source. 
In Bowditch's Ashantee, page 279, the following paragraph 
is found : 
" Taking doom is the infallible test, when they consider the 
case too doubtful for human decision. The bark of that tree, 
(viz : the "doom plant,") is put into a large calabash w r ith water, so 
as to make a strong infusion ; it is stirred up, while the suspected 
parties sip in turn. It operates instantly and convulsively as a 
most violent emetic and purge. Those who sip rirst may re- 
cover, and the dregs are frequently left designedly for the 
obnoxious." 
In Tuckey's narrative of a voyage to the river Congo, page 185 : 
"This morning Gangam Kissey (the public accuser and executioner) 
returned, and we learned that he had denounced three men of an- 
other village as the poisoners of the man that died, and . the ac- 
cused were immediately to undergo the ordeal of chewing the 
poisonous bark, which, if they were guilty, they would retain in 
the stomach, and this would occasion death, but if innocent, they 
would vomit." 
Ibid, page 200. — "It appears that the bark used in the ordeal is 
from a species of Cassia." 
Ibid, page 329. — "The bark and leaves of the Cassa tree, which 
Gangam Kissey made use of as an ordeal, were brought to us. 
They are said to be poisonous." 
Bruce, in his Travels, (vol. v. p. 27, quarto edition,) describes 
