[Illustration]
Although the poisonous properties of the mancinella have been very much
exaggerated, it is nevertheless a very poisonous tree, which, happily,
becomes more and more rare, owing to its being rooted up with great care
wherever it shows itself. It is a tree from 12 to 15 feet high, with
a trunk having a white and soft wood and covered with a greyish bark.
Its branchy top gives it the appearance of a European fruit-tree. Its
leaves are alternate, oval-acute, somewhat cordate at their base, with
fine indentations, and a red gland at their apex. They are attached
to long petioles; stipulate while young. Flowers monoïchous, forming
long terminal spikes, the male flowers being above, the female below
or at the axilla of the leaves. The male flowers have a bifid perianth
whence emanate the stamens, the united filaments of which form a column
that supports the anthers. The female flowers have a perianth with two
or three divisions and a rudimentary foliole; the ovary is round and
superior; style straight, terminating in 6 or 7 red, radiating, reflexed
stigmata. The fruit is round, pulpy, from 5 to 6 inches in diameter,
umbilicate at the top, and inclosing a wooden kernel with seven monosperm
compartments.
The fresh leaves are triturated. When we were informed that a mancinella
had been discovered near Rio, we requested Mr. Ackermann, a pupil of
the institute, to repair to the spot for the purpose of verifying the
identity of the plant, and collecting its juice. Having accomplished his
mission, he drunk a portion of the liquid, on the 10th of January, 1847,
in a public sitting of the institute. He was joined in the proving by
several of our pupils. Some of the following symptoms were so violent,
that they had to be counteracted by antidotes. The pathogenesis of the
mancinella is one of the most precious additions which our Brazilian
provers have furnished to our Materia Medica.
Prover: M. E. T. Ackermann.