406  Strophanthus,  A  Heart-Poison.  {Am'iug.^iSarm" 
systole  in  about  20  minutes.  In  a  frog  whose  central  nervous  system 
had  been  destroyed,  a  solution  of  digitalin,  1  in  20,000,  passed 
through  the  blood  vessels  produced  in  6  or  7  minutes  extreme  contrac- 
tion of  the  vessels ;  but  no  decided  effect  was  observed  with  strophan- 
ti in  solution  1  in  3000,  and  a  temporary  effect  merely  with  a  solu- 
tion 1  in  2,000.  Strophanthus,  therefore,  exerts  a  much  more  power- 
ful action  upon  the  heart,  and  a  less  powerful  action  upon  the  blood 
vessels  than  digitalis. 
The  Kombe  arrow  poison,  in  some  places  also  called  inee,  onage  or 
onaie,  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  Strophanthus  hispidus,  DeCand., 
or  from  St.  Kombe,  Oliver,  described  in  looms  Plantarum,  Nov.  4, 
1870.  Some  of  the  seeds  supplied  to  Prof.  Fraser  from  the  Shiri 
valley,  near  Lake  Nyassa,  were  sown  in  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens, 
Edinburgh,  and  the  plants  were  shown  by  Mr.  E.  M.  Holmes  (Phar. 
Jour,  and  Trans.,  March  13,  1886),  to  differ  from  both  the  above 
species.  In  the  fruit  of  St.  hispidus,  collected  in  Dr.  Baikie's  Niger 
Expedition  and  preserved  in  Daniel  Hanbury's  collection,  the  naked 
portion  of  the  awn  above  the  seed  is  about  one  inch  in  length,  and  the 
hairs  on  the  seed  are  of  a  brown  color.  A  specimen  from  Messrs.  Bur- 
roughs and  Wellcome  consists  of  striated  and  smooth  follicles,  the 
latter  believed  by  Mr.  Wellcome  to  have  been  scraped;  the  seeds  in 
both  are  alike,  are  rather  larger  than  those  of  St.  hispidus,  with  paler 
hairs,  and  with  the  naked  portion  of  the  awn  nearly  two  inches  in 
length.  Apparently  identical  with  this  is  a  specimen  from  Rev.  H. 
Waller,  while  a  fourth  specimen  from  Mr.  H.  B.  Moir,  is  a  much 
shorter  follicle  with  seeds  having  pale  hairs  and  an  awn,  the  naked 
portion  of  which  is  one  inch  long.  Therefore,  two  forms  of  pods  and 
seeds  come  from  the  district  between  Zanzibar  and  Lake  Nyassa ;  both 
differ  from  St.  hispidus,  and  it  is  uncertain  whether  one  of  them  may 
be  derived  from  Strophanthus  Kombe.  If  St.  hispidus  should  be 
found  to  have  the  same  therapeutical  value  as  the  one  experimented 
with  by  Prof.  Fraser  it  could  probably  be  more  readily  and  cheaply 
obtained  from  Sierra  Leone,  than  the  species  from  Eastern  Africa. 
The  latter  is  procurable  only  at  a  very  extravagant  cost,  as  we  have 
been  informed  by  Messrs.  Burroughs,  Wellcome  &  Co.,  to  which  firm 
we  are  indebted  for  specimens  of  this  drug,  which  they  are  at  present 
offering  in  the  form  of  tincture  put  up  in  J  oz.  vials.  This,  we  be- 
lieve, is  the  only  form  in  which  the  new  remedy  is  as  yet  to  be  had  in 
the  American  market.  J.  M.  M. 
