224 ORD. XII. Solanacee, seu Luride.  strycHnos Nux vomics, 
~~ 
is moderately bitter; the resinous part is very inconsiderable in 
quantity, but intensely bitter; hence rectified spirit has been con- 
sidered its best menstruum.? , 
Nux vomica is reckoned amongst the most powerful poisons of 
_ the narcotic kind, especially to brute animals, nor are instances 
wanting of its deleterious effects upon the human species. It proves 
- fatal to dogs in a very short time, as appears by various authorities.* 
Hillefeld and others found that it also poisoned hares, foxes, wolves, 
cats, rabbits, and even some birds, as crows and ducks;' and Loureiro 
relates that a horse died in four hours after taking a dram of the 
seed in an half-roasted state. The effects of this baneful drug upon 
different animals, and even upon those of the same species, appear 
to be rather uncertain, and not always in proportion to the quantity 
of the poison given With some animals it produces its effects 
almost instantaneously ; with others not till after several hours, when 
laborious respiration, followed by torpor, tremblings, coma, and. 
convulsions, usually precede the fatal ear or tetanus, with which 
this drug commonly extinguishes life. 
From four cases related of its mortal effects upon human subjects,* 
we find the symptoms corresponded nearly with those which we have 
here mentioned of brutes; and these, as well as the dissections of 
dogs, killed by this poison, nor shewing any injury done to the 
stomach, or intestines, prove that the Nux vomica acts immediately 
upon the nervous system, and destroys life by the virulence of its 
narcotic influence. 
The quantity of the seed necessary to preduce this effect upon a 
strong dog, as appears by experiments, need not be more than a 
scruple:* a rabbit was killed by five anda cat by four grains: and of 
* Janghanus diss. de Nuce vom. &c. 
* Heyde. Observ.50.p. 116. Seutter. Diss, de Nuce vomica. —Courten, Phil. 
Trans. Wepfer. De Cicuta. 194. Brunner. ibd. Loss. Diss. de Nuce vomica. 
Hillefeld. Diss. Experim. circa venena. Gesner, Epist. 33.— Hillef. 1, c. Loss. 
ic. Brunner. t.@ > ; 
* It was given in a large quantity to a swine without producing any effect, Loss. é.c. 
= * Vide Matthiol. in Dioscor. Lib. 4. Fred. Hoffman. Phil. corp. human. morbos. 
P. c, viii. §. 8. Seutter. tc. Linn, & Tilleus de feb, intermit. cur. p. 40, * Hillef, 
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