178 STBYCHNOS NUX-YOMICA 



tion. Brucia is obtainable from nux vomica in proportions, which 

 have been variously estimated at from 0*12 to I'Ol per cent. It 

 very much resembles strychnia in its bitter taste and poisonous 

 properties, &c., and like it forms crystalline salts ; but neither it 

 nor its salts are so powerful as strychnia and its compounds. 

 According to Andral, brucia is only about one twelfth of the 

 strength of strychnia. It differs from strychnia in its far greater 

 solubility in water, being dissolved in about 150 parts of boiling 

 water ; and by acquiring, as well as its salts, an arterial blood-red 

 colour when moistened with concentrated nitric acid. The other 

 constituents of nux-vomica are of little importance. 



2. STRYCHNIA or STRYCHNINE. This is contained in nux vomiea 

 in proportions varying from J to \ per cent. We have been 

 informed on reliable authority, that the Bombay nux vomica of 

 commerce, contains a much larger proportion of strychnia than 

 Madras nux vomica ; it is important, therefore, that in so powerful 

 a medicine as nux vomica, a full chemical examination should be 

 made of the seeds of different districts, and the results published. 

 Strychnia occurs in right square octahedrons or prisms, colourless 

 and inodorous, soluble in about 6700 parts of cold, or 2500 parts 

 of boiling water. It is so intensely bitter that when one part o 

 the alkaloid is dissolved in 600,000 parts of water, this taste is- 

 perceptible. It is soluble in chloroform, and in boiling rectified 

 spirit ; but very sparingly so in absolute alcohol, benzol, or ether. 

 It is not coloured by nitric acid; and when burned with free- 

 access of air it leaves no ash. Pure sulphuric acid forms with ifc 

 a colourless solution, which on the addition of bichromate of potash 

 acquires an intensely violet hue, speedily passing through red to 

 vellow. It is a very active poison ; and when a few drops of a, 

 solution containing only ~ m of a grain is placed in contact with 

 the skin of a frog, it causes tetanic spasms in less than half an 

 hour. 



Medical Properties and Uses. The action of nux vomica is 

 essentially due to its alkaloid strychnia, which so increases the 

 reflex excitability of the spinal cord that the slightest stimulus, 

 such as a sudden noise, a touch, or even a breath of air, causes 



