POISONOUS DRUGS 189 
the bitterest substances used in medicine. One part of 
strychnine gives a bitter taste to 700,000 parts of water. 
It is one of the most violent poisons, but in minute doses is 
highly valued as a tonic by physicians. 
The drug aconite is the dried tuber of the monkshood 
Fic. 177, I.—Nux Vomica (Strychnos Nux-vomica, Logania Family. Lo- 
ganiacee). Flowering branch. (Baillon.)—Tree of moderate height; 
leaves glossy; flowers greenish or yellow; fruit orange. Native home, 
India and East Indies. 
(Fig. 178). This species and nearly related ones are among 
the most poisonous of plants. The juice of an East Indian 
species is used by the natives as an arrow-poison which is so 
powerful as to kill a tiger within a few minutes after it has 
been even slightly wounded with one of the poisoned arrows. 
