264 



VEGETABLE POISONS. 



upon different animals, and even upon those of tlie same specie.*, 

 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 spasms, 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, not 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 severity of its 

 narcotic influence. 



The quantity of the seed necessary to produce this effect upon a 

 strong dog, as appears by experiments, need not be more than a 

 scruple : a rabbit was killed by five and a cat by four grains : and 

 of the four persons to whom we have alluded, and who unfortunately 

 perished by this deleterious drug, one was a girl ten years of age, to 

 whom fifteen grains were exhibited at twice for the cure of an ague. 

 Loss, however, tells us, that he took one or two grains of it in sub- 

 stance without discovering any bad effect ; and that a friend of his 

 swallowed a whole seed without injury. 



In Britain, where physicians seem to observe the rule saltern non 

 noscere, more strictly than in many other countries, the nux vomica 

 has been rarely if ever employed as a medicine. On the continent, 

 however, and especially in Germany, they have certainly been guided 

 more by the axiom " what is incapable of doing much harm, is 

 equally unable to do much good." The truth of this remark was 

 lately very fully exemplified by the practice of Baron Stoerck ; and 

 is farther illustrated by the medicinal character given of nux vomica, 

 which, from the time of Gesner till that of a modern date, has been 

 recommended by a succession of authors, as an antidote to the 

 plague, as a febrifuge, as a vermifuge, and as a remedy in mania, 

 hypochondriasis, hysteria, rheumatism, gout, and canine madness. 



In Sweden it has of late years been successfully used in dysen- 

 tery ; but Bergius, who tried its effects in this disease, says, that it 

 suppressed the flux for twelve hours, which afterwards returned 

 again. A woman, who took a scruple of this drug ni^ht and morn. 



