54 FLORA HOMCEOPATHICA. 



to be drunk; his limbs, especially his knees, were stiff and 

 tense; his walk was staggering, and he was afraid of falling. 

 He took some food, and the symptoms soon afterwards disap- 

 peared (Tox. Gen. 9 vol. ii. p. 349). 



As regards the quantity sufficient to produce a fatal effect, 

 Dr. Basedon, of Merseburg, mentions the case of a young lady 

 who swallowed, by mistake, a tablespoonful of the powder, she 

 was almost instantly deprived of the power of walking and fell 

 down, but did not lose her recollection ; she after a time re ■ 

 covered. 



Two cases occurred in London in 1839, in which fifty grai 



of the powder of Nux Vomica, equal to one-fourth of a grain of 

 Strychnia, proved fatal in one ; death took place in an hour. 

 The chemist who sold the poison said he did not think a dose 

 of fifty grains sufficient to cause death. Dr. Trail mentions a 



case where fifteen grains destroyed life; this is the smallest 

 fatal dose on record. 



On account of the singular symptoms of irritation of the 

 spinal cord, uncombined with any injury of the brain, the 

 poison is believed to act on the spinal marrow alone. Segalas 

 states, however, that it also exhausts the irritability of the heart. 



Its poisonous effects have been very generally doubted by 

 the lower classes in this country, and they believe that it is 

 capable of poisoning animals only ; hence its vulgar name rats- 

 bane. In one instance it was taken for a wager, supposing that 

 it would only produce symptoms of severe intoxication. The 

 man died in strong convulsions in a few hours, and one of the 

 jury mentioned that the common people imagine it will not 

 produce death in those persons who are born blind. 



Medical Uses (Homceopathic).— Hahnemann {Less. Writ, 

 Dudg. trans., p. 325) states: "The seeds of the Nux Vomica 

 are very powerful; they produce vertigo, anxiety, febrile 

 rigor; and in their secondary action, a certain immobility of 

 all parts, at least of the limbs, and a spasmodic stretching, 

 according to the size of the dose. Hence they are useful not 



