VEGETABLE POISONS. 235 



to the brute species in general ; though it has 

 been used on the continent in moderate doses 

 for various diseases, which there, it has had 

 the reputation of curing. In this country, it 

 has rarely been prescribed. It is one of the 

 articles employed in the adulteration of fermented 

 liquors, to which it imparts an intoxicating, and 

 we may add, a very poisonous quality. When 

 taken in an overdose, nux vomica produces very 

 rapidly a general torpor of the system, nervous 

 tremblings, coma, convulsions, tetanus or locked 

 jaw, and death; its action being confined princi- 

 pally to the brain and nervous system, arid affect- 

 ing but little the stomach and intestines 



The Cocculus Indicus, a berry well known in 

 this country, is also a narcotic poison, frequently 

 put into porter to impart to it an inebriating qua- 

 lity, and though by no means so active or so 

 dangerous as the nux vornica, yet it is a very 

 improper article to be used for such purposes. 



Camphor, the exuded juice of the Laurus Cam- 

 phora, which is imported from Japan and which 

 in the hands of a skilful physician is a most valu- 

 able remedy, if taken in overdoses, or improperly 

 administered, is an active poison, producing 

 nearly the same train of symptoms as the two 

 former articles, with the addition of great pain 

 and heat in the stomach, and throughout the 

 whole of the intestinal tube. 



For the treatment of the last three poisons, Dr. 



