508 NUX-VOMICA AND STRYCHNINE 



membrane blanched ; the left auricle, and also the intes- 

 tines, continued to contract for nearly an hour after death, 

 while the cerebral and intestinal vessels were congested with 

 dark venous blood. 



ANTIDOTES. The stomach should be emptied with as little 

 delay as possible ; if convulsions have begun, the patient 

 should be anaesthetised, the stomach well washed out, and 

 chloral hydrate given. Hughes Bennett first showed 

 the antidotal power of chloral hydrate. He found that the 

 minimum fatal dose of strychnine for rabbits was -^is^h S r - 

 per pound of body-weight. Twenty rabbits received more 

 than this poisonous dose ; fifteen of these, to whom 

 chloral was given, recovered. But a few days later, on 

 receiving the dose previously given, without the chloral, 

 all died. French authorities advise the chloral to be given 

 intravenously. Strychnine tetanus is also antagonised by 

 tobacco, and, less effectually, by such motor paralysers as 

 curare, conium, opium, Calabar bean, and paraldehyde. 



MEDICINAL USES. As bitter tonics, nux-vomica and 

 strychnine are prescribed in loss of appetite and atonic 

 dyspepsia. Their good effects probably depend upon their 

 checking irregular fermentation, diminishing excessive 

 secretion, as in catarrhal conditions, and perfecting co- 

 ordination between the several functions of digestion and 

 assimilation (Brunton). It is probably mainly in this way 

 that they relieve many cases of broken- wind. 



Small doses, especially when combined with acids, are 

 often effectual in checking chronic relaxed and hyper- 

 secreting conditions of the bowels, where these are not 

 complicated with irritation. Larger doses, increasing peri- 

 stalsis, overcome chronic constipation, whether connected 

 with acute indigestion, inflammation, or febrile attacks, and 

 are usually prescribed with aloes or salines. They are bene- 

 ficial in weak, dilated conditions of the heart ; during their 

 excretion they stimulate the urinary organs, while aphro- 

 disias is occasionally produced. In convalescence from 

 acute disease they improve appetite and general tone. 

 Strychnine, subcutaneously injected, is sometimes service- 

 able in maintaining activity of the respiratory and heart 

 centres in collapse and narcotic poisoning. 



