1025 



NUX VOMICA, ALKALOIDS OF. 



^ "* 1CA, ALKALOIDS OF. 102 



^^^iSB^l!^-^"^ l ^"ft^^^sS^f^? 



__i A ! th ';! ugh . ll f no .t possible to give in this articl t n t *!, SHEAJ195' [ p ?5_!: ss ' O!lf AND NUTATION.] 



' 



AND TESTAMENT.] 

 : N AND NUTATION.] 



NUX VOMICA, ALKALOIDS OF. The beans and bark of the 

 x vo 



value of HSSp^ratSMM*! n NUX V MIC f f ^loiDS OKTh^ bians and ba 



m Tit ttrof 2 e k! I**" J *&^?%* \ &% i^V ^Cf coE th th \TT 



pvji; TT .. Lln s s are comparatively common and m si T, /oi i jntain three alkaloids, namelv, 



u., Ale ;ander HI., and T.vaim!,^,^ 1.1. 1:^1. W hrucine, (3) vjasurine. It is to these alkaloids that 



ae pmsonous properties of the plants are due. In the beans of the 



KTVC/tnog nu.r vnnurft fVm nllml,'J . j. , - 



one of Myrrhma obtained 2601. Those of the ki 



SS^^^ 



ien beautifully preserved. In the Roman series the consular 



nbvMr o 



* 



d of medals about His. Collectors ^Flndee'd 



Cohen, r burthe S Trt S^S^JtiSS.^ 



to the preservation of the coins, and must be sought for bTexamin nf 



corns andSr ? 'If- A " t general rale ' the P 1 *" P^ "o? 

 Su4r Wn mUCh enhan e ed i" the last quarter of a 



Although it is not possible to give the value of any of the great 

 pubhc co lections o Europe, some idea of their worth may be derived 

 from that of collections formed by individuals. The collection of Dr 

 T, now at Glasgow, cost upwards of 21,000^., that of the late 

 i sold for 17.304/., that of the Earl of Pembroke for 



^Jgi^^sK^^^^r^^ 



ciS^i^tr^^r: sss: ; rt 



poverty of certain States, of the short reigns of some princfs or the 



suppression of their coins by public authority. Of "some Roman 



-here are absolutely none in certain metals and sizes ; bronze 



r Otho for examp e were never struck by the Senate, and the 



coins of Caligula were called in and destroyed by the same body; but 



Ul cases preservation enhances in the highest degree the value of 



coins otherwise ordinary. 



Ancient coins are discovered in the bosom of the earth, or in the 

 ran of rivers where they have been lost or hoarded by public or 

 private misfortunes. Isolated discoveries are constantly being made bv 

 v-ators, but sometimes they occur in great numbers ; 30 000 gold 

 Lysimachus were found in a river, of the ancient Dacia 

 8 7" denarii in 1760, at Brest, 4000 aurei at Hornoy, 12,000 

 pennies of \Villiam the Conqueror at Beaworth, and 7000 Saxon coins 

 jerdale, not to mention minor finds. They present different 

 ippearances according to the locality; gold under all circumstances 

 ts colour, but sometimes requires the removal of a crust of 

 J or other substances which adhere to it; silver is so oxydised as to 



nrCfWIlt. n. rr-nvieh K1L- A!A.. ~_J j.i_ . , -, -. .", , 



whole evaporated to a syrupy consistence. When the rl uHing solu 

 t,on ,. cold, dilute with an equal bulk of water, add excess of lid 

 ammonia, and set by for a day or two that the strychnine may crystal 

 hse out Next pass through a calico filter to separate the da^een" 



ac^nd^'^T* I'' 6 reSin id re8iduum in hot dilute Seto 

 acid and filter. The strychnine and brucine may now be precinit 

 by solution of potash, or the strychnine only b/the addition of solu 

 tion of chromate of potash, when a chromate of strychnine will be 

 obtained free from brucine, provided the liquid which retains tnt 

 brucine be tolerably acid. Chromic acid may be readily separated 

 from, the strychnine by digesting the chromate of strycnn "e in 

 ammonia, when the alkaloid is left in a state of snowy whiteness 



He amount of strychnine present in nux vomica, St. Ignatius' beans 



Ve3 ^ * 



present a grayish black colour, and for the types to be legible, it must 



eaned by lemon juice, citric acid, or acetic acid, and some use 



ammoniac. Bronze and copper present a most varied appearance 



the beds of nvers, such as the Thames, they have a yellow 



brown patina, and only require removing from the matters which 



arround them. From volcanic soils they come with a bright 



turquoise blue or green patina, which must not be touched when it 



u polished, and shows under its coat, like the varnish of a picture all 



the contours of the type and legend. The yellow and brown patinas 



3f other soils must be respected, but the green gritty rust which 



es many copper coins may be successfully removed by placing 



the coins m 1 part of hydrochloric acid with 14 parts of water, watching 



the pr< gress, and allowing them to remain a short time afterwards in 



ammonia The use of the wire l.rush, of the knife or graver, may be also 



judiciously applied to cleaning brass coins. 



The principal general works on the subject are 



(Hennin, Manuel de Numismatique Ancienne, 8vo, Paris, 1S30- 

 Grasset, Himdliuch der alien Numismatik, 8vo, Lips. 1852-53*; Werl- 

 hoff, Ilandbuch der Griechischen Numiamatik, Svo, Hanov., 1850 Bar- 

 the'lemy, Manuel de Numixmatiquc, 16mo, Paris, fno date 1 

 NUN. [MONACHISM.] 



NUNCIO (A'unzio, in Italian; Nuntius, in Latin) signifies a mes- 

 senger, but is used more particularly to designate the ambassadors 

 sent by the pope to foreign courts. The nuncio is generally a prelate 

 of the court of Rome ; if a cardinal, he is styled " legate." Previous 

 to the council of Trent, the papal nuncios in foreign countries acted as 

 judges, in the first instance, of matters which were within ecclesiastical 

 jurisdiction ; but since that time they have acted as judges of appeal 

 from the decisions of the respective bishops, in those countries only 

 which are subject to the decretals and discipline of the council of 

 Trent. In those kingdoms and states, such as France, which, though 

 Hi .man Catholic, hold themselves independent of the court of Rome in 

 matters of discipline, the nuncio has no jurisdiction whatever, and has 

 AKT8 AND SCI. DIV. VOL. V. 



le is colourless and inodorous, but of intensely bitter taste 

 one million of water possessing decided bitterness lu 

 crysalhneformiaoctohedral, or square prismatic. It i oZ shghtly 

 soluble in water one part requiring seven thousand parts of cold v ( to 

 or nearly three thousand parts of hot water, for its olution n round 

 numbers one gram of strychnine is soluble in one pint of coldater 

 It is insoluble m absolute alcohol, pure ether, or alkaline sofutions 

 but soluble in the essentml oils, chloroform, and ordinary alcohol' 

 Strychnine exerts fevo-rotation on a polarised ray, with clouble the 

 F . 5" rucine - It fuses when heated, but is not sublimeable Dis- 

 tilled with hydrate of potash it furnishes quinoline. 



Strychnine is an exceedingly powerful poison, and has of late years 

 been much used for criminal purposes. A great deal of attentLfhas 

 consequently been bestowed upon it by chLists, and its detec ion in 

 the various parts of an animal that has been killed by it is now as 

 certain and as easy as that of any of the well-known mineral po"sons 

 Ihe fol owing process by Messrs. Rodgers and Girdwood is one of 

 several, but !s perhaps more convenient than some others --The siU> 

 stance operated upon is digested with dilute hydrochloric 'acid one to 

 ten until it is apparently fluid ; the liquid is then filtered and evaporated 

 to dryness over a water-bath, treated with spirit as long as a, ythTngl s 

 dissolved the filtered tincture evaporated L before, Ll the reskfue 

 treated with water and filtered; this aqueous solution mu now ^ 

 rendered alkaline by ammonia and agitated in a bottle, or long tube 

 fomisdra ff n K UDCe0f C t hIor V form ; "top subsidence the chloro-' 

 , Til Fi y f meaM , a P , lfette ' transferred to an evaporating 

 basin and the chloroform expelled over a water-bath ; the residue m,,. 

 then be moistened with concentrated sulphuric acid, and exposed for 

 some hours to the temperature of a water-bath, by whkh p.oceedW 

 all organic matter except the strychnine is destroyed. The charred 

 ma, sis then treated with water, and the solution filtered fa f separate 

 the carbon; excess of ammonia is now added, and the solution a-ain 

 agitated with about one drachm of chloroform; if on evaporatin- 

 f f , t ! liS chlOTO ? <ltin, and treating the residue with 

 -oncentrated sulphuric acid, any charring takes place, the preceding 

 process must be repeated until the strychnine from the chloroform 

 solution remains in a perfectly pure state. Pure strychnine, obte ned 

 just described, or in any other manner, is at once recogn sed bv tS 

 following reactions :-The first is known as the coWtesf, and consists 

 in evaporating to dryness a solution of a fragment of the alkaloid on a, 

 hite plate, and then allowing to flow over it a small quantitv of 

 sulphuric acid previously slightly coloured with bichromate or red 

 prussiate of potash ; on coming into contact, a beautiful violet colour 

 lading into a rose-red, is produced, if any quantity greater than the 

 one-thousandth of a grain of strychnine is present. Some " ther 

 oxKhsing agents produce the same effect. A solution of sSvchnine 

 also gives characteristic precipitates with tannic acid, terchloride of 

 gold chromate or bichromate of potash, carbazotic acid, iodine L 

 but these should all be confirmed by the application of the colour' test' 

 Thephyruilogieal te*t recommended by Marshall Hall, consists in placing 

 frogs m the suspected solution, or injecting small quantities ofihe 



3 u 



