NUX VOMICA. 429 



History — Niix Vomica, which was unknown to the ancients, is 

 thought to have been introduced into medicine by the Arabians. But 

 the notices in their writings which have been supposed to refer to it, 

 are far from clear and satisfactory. We have no evidence moreover 

 that it was used in India at an early period. Garcia de Orta, an observer 

 thoroughly acquainted with the drugs of the west coast of India in the 

 middle of the IGth century, is entirely silent as to nux vomica. 

 Fleming,^ writing at the bcgining of the present century, remarks that 

 nux vomica is seldom, if ever, employed in medicine by the Hindus, 

 but this statement does not hold good now. 



The drug was however certainly made known in Germany in the 1 Gtli 

 century. Valerius Cordus^ wrote a description of it about the year 

 1540, which is remarkable for its accuracy. Fuchs, Bauhin and others 

 noticed it as JS^ux Metella, a name taken from the Methel of Avicenna 

 and other Arabian authors.^ 



It was found in the English shops in the time of Parkinson (1G40), 

 who remarks that its chief use is for poisoning dogs, cats, crows, and 

 ravens, and that it is rarely given as a medicine. 



Description — Nux Vomica is the seed, removed from the pulp and 

 shell. It is disc-like, or rather irregularly orbicular, a little less than 

 an mch in diameter, by about a quarter of an inch in thickness, slightly 

 concave on the dorsal, convex on the ventral surface, or nearly flat on 

 either side, often furnished with a broad, thickened margin so that the 

 central portion of the seed appears depressed. The outside edge is 

 rounded or tapers into a keel-like ridge. Each seed has on its ed<^e a 

 small protuberance, from which is a faintly projecting line (raphe) 

 passing to a central scar, which is the hilum or umbilicus ; a slight 

 (lepression marks the opposite side of the seed. The seeds are of a liglit 

 greyish hue, occasionally greenish, and have a satiny or glistening aspect, 



hi" •^^^^?? ^^ *^®-^^ ^"^"^^ thickly covered with adpressed, radiating 

 bitt^ i^ vomica is extremely compact and horny, and has a very 



cut f/^^^ \^^'^^^ ^^^^ softened by digestion in water, the seed is easily 

 ffinm 1 ^^^^^^ ®*^^^*^' ^^^"^^ displaying a mass of translucent, cartila- 

 emW ^^'^^'^> t^ivided into two parts by a fissure in which lies the 

 delioaf " 4-1 ^^^^"^ ^^ ^^*^^^^ TO of an inch long, having a pair of 

 radifl +r ^ ^^^^^'^^"^^ heart-shaped cotyledons, with a club-shaped 

 thp JZ' n Po^i^ion of which is indicated on the exterior of the seed bv 

 ^ small protuberance already named. 



abWr''?^°^''^ Structure— The hairs of nux vomica are of remark- 

 epidern/*^ ^^ ^i" i. "^^^^ ^^^ formed as usual of the elongated cells of the 

 are inW ' f tY^ *^^''' ^^'^^^^ thickened by secondary deposits, which 



t-nupted by longitudinally extended pores ; they are a strikin- 



J-urgUy ?."^«^«'-^c^^^^ accprding to Rox- » Catalogue of Indian Med. Plants, and 



{^lora LlvS7 \v^^ ""^ ^'''"^- Beddome Drugs, Calcutta, 1810. 37. 



food of many bird ' '^^''^""'^'' Argontorat. 15G1. lib. iv. c. 21. 



..^Gamier F^lj^ .■ , , ^ Clusius and others held the opinion that 



n- (Paris, 1873i ^t'^^'°}^ ^'} Imlo-CIdna the ^'ux methel of the Arabs was the fruit of 



f «e similar to th.V ^'^^^^°^ ^^ made to a a Datura, and an Indian species was accord- 



i''}' ^'hich are devofl f ''°*-^' ^*^j"S ''^Sh "^med by Linn^us D. Mttd. 

 ^Wuritn fievoid of poison before 





