CORBERA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Apocynacece, contains among other poisonous species that from which the Tanghin poison of Madagascar is procured. The genus Cerbera is known by the calyx being leafy, the corolla funnel-shaped, with a clavate tube, and five scales on its orifice, the stamens sessile just below the orifice of the tube, and a 1- or 2-seeded drupe, with a fibrous woody stone.
C. Tanghin, the Tanghin, is described as a tree with lanceolate alternate leaves, of a leathery texture, pale-pink flowers arranged in coryrnboae panicles, with a crimson star-like blotch at the orifice of the tube, and an oval drape as large as a peach, of a green colour stained with purple, and not unlike some sorts of mango. The following interesting account of the plant is given by Mr. Telfair : The kernel of the fruit must be a very powerful poison : it is not much larger than an almond, and yet is sufficient to destroy above twenty persons. Radama, the late king of Madagascar, abolished the use of it as an ordeal. Whether the custom has been revived by the new government I know not. It was with great difficulty that the chief tains could be persuaded to admit of the abolition of ari usage which had existed from time immemorial, and whose unerring efficacy in the detection and punishment of crime had never been questioned, until Mr. Hasty, our government agent, had acquired such an influence with Radama and his court as to admit of the exposure of its fallacy.
But this was the work of years ; and although Radama was at length himself convinced that nothing could be more unjust than the con tinuance of the practice, he dared not so far shock the prejudices of his people as to order that it should cease. Even the chief performers in the ceremony, the Skids, as they are called at Tanarariesoo, who unite in their own persons the offices of priests and physicians, and who administer the poisonous kernel to the victims, never doubt its power of revealing guilt or clearing innocence. The last occasion on which it was practised in Radama's reign, and of which he availed himself to effect its discontinuance, personally regarded his court and attendants. The king was affected with a complaint of the liver, for which the skid prescribed some inefficacious remedies, and as the disease became worse Mr. Hasty gave him some calomel in doses which he had found by experience to relieve himself under similar symptoms. The disease disappeared, but ptyalism was produced, and alarmed the king's family, who believed that he was poisoned, and insisted that all his immediate attendants should be put to the ordeal of the tanghin ; and the royal skid was most earnest iu pressing to have it performed, although he himself from his rank and place was among the first to whom it would be administered. In vain the king
protested that he felt himself cured, and that the indisposition and soreness of the mouth was caused by the medicines that had relieved him, and which would pass off in a few days. The skid insisted, the ministers and principal chieftains joined with the family in requiring the ordeal, to which the king in spite of his convictions was compelled to consent ; but at the same time lie made it a condition that this should be the last exhibition of the kind, and he bewailed the neces sity which deprived him of so many attached dependants whose fate he had predicted, while he protested his conviction of their innocence.
The king's servants, including the skid, were more than twenty in number ; they were shut up at night separately, and not allowed to taste food ; the next morning they were brought out in procession and paraded before the assembled people ; the presiding skid had the tanghin fruit in readiness ; after some prayers and superstitious evolutions he took out the kernel, which he placed on a smooth stone, and with another stone broke down part of it into a soft white mass like powdered almonds. The victims were then brought sepa rately forward, each was questioned as to his guilt, and if he denied, his arms were tied behind, and he was placed ou his knees before the skid, who put a portion of the pounded kernel on his tongue and compelled him to swallow it. Thus the kernel was shared among all the king's personal servants. On some of the individuals the poison began to operate in half an hour or less. The skid takes particular notice how they fall, whether on the face, to the right or left hand, or on the back, each position indicating a different shade of guilt. Con vulsions generally come on accompanied with efforts to vomit. Those whose stomachs reject the dose at an early period usually recover. On this occasion there were only two individuals with whom this was the case. The others were thrown in a state of insensibility into a hole, and every person present at the ceremony was obliged to throw a stone over them, so that their burial was quickly completed. The king's skid was one of the first that fell. Those that recover are supposed to bear a charmed life ever after, and are respected as the peculiar favourites of the gods. (' Botanical Magazine,' fol. 2968.) The plant which yields the Tanghin has beeu called by Du Petit Thomas Tanghinia venenifera. C. Manghas is a native of Singapore and some of the adjacent islands. The seeds are emetic and poisonous, whilst the milky sap is purgative. The leaves and bark are used as a substitute for senna.