See, 
tity, but intenfely bitter; hence reCtified fpirit has been confidered. 
its beft menftruum.* ia | 
Nux vomica is reckoned amongft the moft powerful poifons of the 
narcotic kind,’ {pecially to brute animals, nor are inftances wanting 
of its deleterious effets upon the human f{pecies. It proves fatal to 
dogs in a very fhort time, as appears by various authorities.* Hillefeld 
and others found that it alfo poifoned hares, foxes, wolves, cats, rab- 
bits, and even fome birds, as crows and ducks ;‘ and Loureiro relates 
that a horfe died in four hours after taking a dram of the feed in an 
half-roafted ftate. ‘The effets of this baneful drug upon different 
animals; and even upon thofe of the fame {pecies, appear to be rather 
uncertain, and not always in proportion to the quantity of the poifon 
‘given.® With fome animals it produces its effects almoft inftan- 
taneoufly ; with others not till after feveral hours, when laborious 
refpiration, followed by torpor, tremblings, coma, and convulfions, 
ufually precede the fatal fpafms, or tetanus, with which this drug. 
commonly extinguithes life. | 
From four cafes related of its mortal effets upon human fubjedts,* 
we find the fymptoms correfponded nearly with thofe which we have_ 
here mentioned of brutes; and thefe, as well as the difleGions of 
dogs, killed by this poifon, not fhewing any injury done to the 
ftomach, or inteftines, prove that the Nux vomica acts immediately 
upon the nervous fyftem, and deftroys life by the virulence of its: 
narcotic influence. ; 
The quantity of the feed neceflary to produce this effe& upon a — 
ftrong dog, as appears by experiments, need not be more than a 
{cruple :* a rabbit was killed by five anda cat by four grains: and of 
the four perfons to whom we have alluded, and who unfortunately’ 
perifhed by this deleterious drug, one was a girl ten years of age, to 
whom 15 grains were exhibited at twice for the cure of an ague. Lofs,. 
4 Junghanns dif de Nuce vom. Se. 
© Heyde. Objferv. 50. p. 116. Seutter. Diff: de Nuce vomica. Courten. Phil. Tranf. 
Wepfer. De Cicuta. 194. Brunner. ibd. Lofs. Diff. de Nuce vomica. Hillefeld. Dif. 
Experim. circa venena. Gener. Epift. 33-—! Hillef- 1c. Lofs. lc. Brunner. 1. ¢. 
& It was given in a large quantity to a fwine without producing any effect. Lo/5./. c. 
-* Vide Matthiol. in Diofcor. Lib. 4. Fred. Hoffman. Phil. corp. human. morbos. ag 
ii. ¢. Viti §, 8, Seutter.h c. Linn. & Tilleus de feb. intermit. cur. p. 40.” Hillef. 
. however, 
