46 FLORA HOM(EOPATHICA. 



History. — The Arabians first introduced Nux Vomica as a 

 medicinal agent. Serapion describes the bean of the Strych- 

 nos St. Ignatii as Nux Vomica, and it is probable that his 

 Nux Mechil is the Nux Vomica of the moderns. Gerarde 

 says : " Avicen and Serapio make Nux Vomica and Nux Methel 

 to be one, whereabout there hath bcene much cavilling: vet 

 the case is plaine, if the text be true that the thorne apple 

 {Datura Stramonium) is Nux Methel. Avicen affirmeth the 

 Vomiting Nut to be of a poisonous qualitie, cold in the fourth 

 degree, having a stupefying nature, and bringeth deadly sleep." 



He 



Nuts, we thinke it not necessarie to write, because the danger 

 is great, and not to be given inwardly, but mixed with other 

 compositions, and that verie curiously by the hands of a faith- 

 full apothecarie." According to Dr. Christison, it has been 

 used as a medicine from time immemorial, by the natives of 

 Hindostan. Formerly, owing probably to its poisonous effects, 

 Nux Vomica was very sparingly employed as an internal 

 remedy. Dr. Woodville (Med. Bot, 1794) says : " In Britain, 

 where physicians seem to observe the rule saltern non nocere 

 more strictly than in many other countries, the Nux Vomica 

 has been rarely, if ever, employed as a medicine. On the Con- 

 tinent, however, and especially in Germany, they have certainly 

 been guided more by the axiom * what is incapable of doing 

 much harm is equally unable to do much good.' The truth 

 of this remark was lately very fully exemplified by the practice 

 of Baron Stoerck, and is further illustrated by the medicinal 

 character given of Nux Vomica, which, from the time of Gesner 

 tijl that of modern date, has been recommended by a succession 

 of authors as an antidote to the plague, as a febrifuge, as a ver- 

 mifuge, as a remedy in mania, hypochondria, hysteria, rheu- 

 matism, gout, and canine madness. 



" In Sweden it has of late years been successfully used in 

 dysentery ; but Bergius, who tried its effects in this disease, 

 says that it suppressed the flux in twelve hours, which after- 



