On the characters, actions, and therapeutic uses of the ordeal bean of Calabar, (Physostigma Venenosum, Balfour) : a graduation thesis, for which a gold medal was awarded by the Edinburgh University, August 1862 / by Thomas R. Fraser, M.D.

  • Fraser, Thomas R. (Thomas Richard), 1841-1920.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the characters, actions, and therapeutic uses of the ordeal bean of Calabar, (Physostigma Venenosum, Balfour) : a graduation thesis, for which a gold medal was awarded by the Edinburgh University, August 1862 / by Thomas R. Fraser, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    tlic Bible one of the earliest accounts of such a trial is found, where a cup of bitter water is commanded to be drunk for the detection of conjugal unfaithfulness.^ In Ilindostan and China, in Japan, Pegu, Java, the Canary Islands, and many other places, various forms of ordeal were, and in many are still employed ; and in our own country the practice existed to a great extent until the thirteenth century, when, in the reign of Henry III., a law is stated to have been passed for its abolishment.^ In the other countries of Europe it had the like prevalence during the medieval periods. It would occupy too much space to attempt to enumerate the many and ingenious methods which were made use of in such trials. They may be naturally classified under two great divisions,—those whose application was external, and those in which some substance was introduced into the system, or where it was internal. The ^first includes the well-known trials by fire, water, the combat, and the balance. The second class comprises what may be regarded as the more curious and interesting forms, and it includes the large section of the vegetable ordeal poisons. This description prevails, as might be expected, in the tropical latitudes, where plants containing principles of active energy are more abundantly to be met with. The actions of these vegetable agents have, no doubt, been narrated in very exaggerated terms, and in many instances erroneously. Merolla describes the Ncassu, a plant employed as an ordeal at Congo, as possessing properties so pernicious, that birds even fly from the tree, for if they settle on its branches they immediately fall down dead.^ Many of them must, at the same time, really pos- sess energetic actions, in order to sviggest the assertion of such absurdities, and many may yet become valuable as therapeutic agents. The general rationale of the use of the ordeal will be more satisfactorily explained by entering on a fcAv details as to its employment at Calabar. The region included in the terra Calabar occupies a district of West Africa, in the neighbourhood of the Bight of Biafra, and extending along the course of a considerable river—the Eio Calbary, Old Calabar, or Gude Calburgh. Its bound- aries are indefinite. It is situated between 4° and 8° N. lat., and 6° and 12° E. long., and is estimated to have a length of one hun- dred miles, and a breadth of fifty. The natives are descended from the Ibibio tribe, wlio inhabit a region extending westward from Calabar to the river Niger. Their government is oligarchical. Several chiefs rule the towns, each of which separately forms an independent government, joining with others in times of danger for the common cause, and possessing with them a common council. 1 Book of Nuinbers, chapter v., 17-31. Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. iv. , „ Mcrolla's Voyage to Congo. See Phikerton'b Voyages and Iravek^, 1814, vok xvi. p. 222.