STRYCKNOS NUX VOMICA. 
295 
tubular, five -toothed, deciduous ; corolla monopetalous ; tube in- 
flated at the middle, very long, and cut at the limb into five small 
segments ; the filaments are five, short, fixed at the mouth of the 
tube, and furnished with simple roundish anthers ; the germen is 
roundish, superior, and supports a simple style, the length of the 
tube of the corolla, and terminated by a blunt stigma ; the fruit is 
a round, smooth, pulpy berry, about the size of a large apple ; the 
rind of this berry, which, when ripe, is of a deep yellow colour, by 
its hardness partakes somewhat of the nature of a shell ; the fruit, 
however, must be considered of the drupous kind ; in the pulp are 
contained generally five seeds, which are round and flat, about an 
inch in diameter, of a grey colour and covered with downy, radiated 
hair, internally of a hard, tough, horny consistence. These seeds 
are the officinal Nux Vomica, 
Sensible Properties. This nut is extremely bitter to the 
taste, but has no remarkable smell. It consists chiefly of a gummy 
matter, which is moderately bitter ; the quantity of resinous matter 
is inconsiderable, but is intensely bitter : rectified spirit has been 
found the best menstruum for extracting its active principle. From 
the recent experiments of M. Pelletier, it appears that Nux Vomica 
contains two very active alkaline substances, to which the names 
Strychnine and Brucine have been given, and to which it owes 
its deleterious and medicinal properties. These substances we shall 
notice in their proper places. 
Medical Properties of Nux Vomica. This vegetable 
production has been very rarely employed in these countries, but 
on the Continent, and particularly in Germany, it has been very 
generally recommended in a variety of diseases, and by a succession 
of authors, as an antidote to the plague, a febrifuge, vermifuge, and 
as a remedy in gout, rheumatism, mania, hysteria, canine madness, 
&c. In Sweden it is said to have been successfully used in dysen- 
tery ; but Bergius relates, that in one case where he had tried it, the 
flux was suppressed for twelve hours, but it afterwards returned ; 
and in another case, a woman, thirty-two years of age, who took a 
scruple of it night and morning, for two successive days, was seized 
with convulsions and vertigo ; the dysenteric symptoms returned, 
and were cured by other medicines, but the eff'ects of the Nux Vo- 
mica continued for some time after : Bergius therefore recommends 
it to be given in only small doses, from five to fourteen grains, as a 
tonic and anodyne. Dr. Good, of our own country, was never able 
to give more than seven grains of the powdered nut for a dose, with- 
