Nl \ VOMICA, 53 



countenance was at this time very frightful. She died about 

 an hour after taking the poison, and five hours afterwards she 

 was still as stiff and straight as a statue ; if you lifted one of 

 her hands, the whole body moved with it, but the face had 

 become pale in comparison, and its expression more placid." 



Hoffmann {Med. Nat SysL, vol. ii. p. 175) reports that a young 

 girl, ten years of age, labouring under an obstinate quartan 

 fever, took, at two doses, fifteen grains of Nux Vomica. She 

 died after a short time, having experienced extreme anxieties. 



A young woman swallowed purposely a drachm mixed in a 

 glass of wine. In fifteen minutes she was seized with pain and 

 heat in the stomach, burning in the gullet, a sense of redness 

 and weariness in the limbs, succeeded by stiifness of the joints, 

 convulsive tremors, tottering in her gait, and at length violent 

 and frequent attacks of tetanus. Milk, given after the tetanus 

 began, excited vomiting. She was further affected with redness 

 of the gums, inflammation of the tongue, burning thirst, and 

 pain in the stomach ; the pulse also became quick, and the skin 

 hot. Next day, though the fits had ceased, the muscles were 

 very sore, especially on motion; the tongue and palate were 

 inflamed, and there was thirst, pain in the stomach, vomiting, 

 colic, and diarrhoea. These symptoms, however, abated, and 

 on the fourth day disappeared, leaving her exceedingly weak 

 (Tacheron, Lond. Med. JRep. y vol. xix. p. 456). 



Jules Cloquet has described a case where the patient seemed 

 to die of the excessive exhaustion produced by the long-con- 

 tinued and violent spasms. The tetanic fits lasted about 

 twenty -four hours, the sensibility of the intervals being acute. 

 Slight signs of irritation of the stomach succeeded, and death 

 ensued on the fourth morning (Nouv. Journ. de Med., vol. x. 



— 



) 



Orfila states that a person swallowed, in the morning, a 

 scruple of Nux Vomica in powder, and drank afterwards a 

 few glasses of cold water, in order to diminish the bitterness 

 occasioned by this substance. Half an hour after he appeared 



