504 NTJX-VOMICA AND STRYCHNINE 



soluble in water. It is reddened by nitric acid and chlorine. 

 Strong sulphuric acid containing nitric acid colours brucine 

 a rich rose, but on adding potassium permanganate, the 

 play of colours observed with strychnine is not produced. 



ACTIONS AND USES. Nux-vomica, strychnine, and brucine 

 are stimulants of the motor centres of the spinal cord, and 

 of other motor centres. Full doses produce tetanic con- 

 vulsions, which cause death from asphyxia, or from subse- 

 quent paralysis and exhaustion . Medicinal doses are gastric , 

 vascular, and nerve-tonics, and anti-paralysants. They 

 destroy enzymes and other vegetable and animal organisms. 



GENERAL ACTIONS. The alkaloids differ from each other 

 and from nux-vomica mainly in the degree of their action. 

 Strychnine is fully fifty times as active as the powdered 

 nux, and nearly twenty to thirty times as active as brucine. 

 The St. Ignatius' bean yielded by the Strychnos Ignatia 

 a tree grown in the Philippine Islands contains strychnine 

 and brucine. Akazga, the ordeal plant of the West Coast 

 of Africa, belongs to this order, and yields akazgine, which is 

 analogous to strychnine. Other trees of the same order also 

 yield tetanising poisons. Allied to this group are thebaine 

 and some other opium alkaloids ; gelsemine, the alkaloid 

 obtained from the rhizome and rootlets of yellow jasmine ; 

 calabarine, an alkaloid found in Calabar bean ; and picro- 

 toxin, a neutral principle prepared from the seeds of 

 Anamirta paniculata (Cocculus indicus). The methyl 

 compounds of strychnine and brucine, instead of stimu- 

 lating spinal and motor centres, and producing convulsions, 

 resemble curare, and paralyse the ends of motor nerves. 



Strychnine lessens oxidation of protoplasm and of blood, 

 and checks fermentation, but not nearly so effectually as 

 quinine. Low organisms, wetted with weak watery solutions, 

 have their activity increased ; wetted with strong solutions, 

 their activity is diminished and they are destroyed. 

 It stimulates the whole central nervous system, but 

 especially the spinal cord, exalting its reflex excitability, 

 and it also stimulates other reflex nerve centres. Small 

 to moderate doses promote secretion of saliva, improve 

 appetite, stimulate the intestinal muscular coat and increase 

 peristalsis, and hence assist in overcoming constipation. 



