1SUX VOMICA. 4! 



Caventon's analyses of the seeds of Strychnos Nux Vomica 

 gave the following : strychnic or igasuric acid ; strychnia-brucia, 

 in combination with strychnic acid; wax (a small quantity); 

 concrete oil; yellow colouring matter; gum; starch (a little); 

 bassorin; woody fibre; carbonate of lime and chloride of 

 potassium in the ashes. The seeds are very difficult to reduce 

 to a state of fine division. Powdered Nux Vomica has a fallow 



grey colour, a bitter taste, and a smell like liquorice. When 

 burned at a low temperature, it sends forth a thick, white 

 smoke, with this peculiar odour. It turns black with strong 

 sulphuric acid; deep orange colour with nitric acid. Digested 

 in boiling water, and a little sulphuric acid added, the liquor 

 becomes turbid and yellow; ammonia makes it brown, and 



precipitates blackish flocks. 



Hahnemann orders the seeds to be reduced to a fine powder, 

 in a marble mortar, and fifty grains to be mixed with one thou- 

 sand drops of alcohol, then to be placed aside in a cool place for a 

 week ; of this, one drop is to be mixed with five hundred drops 

 of alcohol, and this constitutes the second attenuation; then 

 dilute, as previously ordered, to the thirtieth attenuation. An- 

 other mode, and which by some is considered the best, is to 

 make the first three attenuations by trituration, after having 

 previously powdered the nut in a heated mortar. 



Physiological Effects. — The seeds of the Strychnos Nux 

 Vomica are poisonous, more or less, to all animated nature. 

 Marcet (An. Chim. et Phys., t. xxix.) states that a haricot 

 plant died in twelve hours, after immersing the root in a solution 

 of the extract of the seeds. Fifteen grains of the same extract 

 were inserted into a lilac-tree and the wound closed; in thirteen 

 days the leaves began to wither. On the vertebrated animals 

 its effects are very uniform, Moiroud (Pharm. Vet, p. 266), 

 however, states that a much larger quantity is required to kill 

 herbivorous than carnivorous animals. It produces in all tetanic 

 convulsions, increased sensibility to external impressions, 

 asphyxia, and death (vide OrJUa, Tax. Gen., vol. ii. p. 34). 



