178 STRYCHNOS NUX-VOMICA 



cannot annually be less than 6000 cwt. This is about half of the 

 whole quantity exported from British India. The imports of 

 Nux Yomica into this country have enormously increased of late 

 years, as may be judged of by the fact that, in the years 1838, 

 1839, and 1840, duty was only paid on an annual average of 

 680 Ibs. 



General Characters and Composition. The seeds, which are 

 commonly known under the official name of Nux Vomica, as seen 

 in commerce, are nearly round in form, and on an average, about 

 seven-eighths of an inch in diameter, by nearly a quarter of an 

 inch in thickness ; they are nearly flat on both surfaces, or more 

 commonly, slightly convex on one surface, and concave on the 

 other, and marked in the centre of the latter surface by a roundish 

 scar or hilum, from which a more or less projecting line or raphe 

 is seen to pass to the circumference, where it terminates in a slight 

 prominence. In some cases the seeds are more or less curved or 

 irregularly twisted so as to modify in some degree the above 

 characters. The testa or seed-coat is of an ash-grey or yellowish- 

 grey-green colour, and has a glistening appearance from being 

 thickly covered with short satiny hairs. The seeds are very hard 

 and horny, without any perceptible odour, but having an extremely 

 bitter taste. They are powdered with difficulty, and the powder 

 has a yellowish-grey colour. By the Germans they have been 

 named Krahenaugen or Crows' eyes, from their being poisonous to 

 crows, and their fancied resemblance to grey eyes. 



Nux Yomica contains three crystalline alkaloids, namely, 

 strychnia, brucia, and igasuria, all of which have a bitter taste 

 and poisonous properties ; but by far the most important in a 

 medicinal point of view, is the alkaloid strychnia, which, being 

 official, is described below. All these alkaloids are said to be 

 combined with a peculiar acid, termed strychnia or igasuric acid, 

 and which, according to Ludwig, is a yellowish-brown amorphous 

 mass, with a sour astringent taste, and a strongly acid reaction. 

 Igasuria is said by Schiitzenberger, to be composed of nine distinct 

 bases, differing from each other in their solubility in water, in 

 composition, and in other characters j it requires further examina- 



