POISONING BY STRYCHNIA. 
397 
have undergone the vinous, acetic, or putrefactive fermenta- 
tion. M. Orfila has already shown that the putrefactive fer- 
mentation does not alter morphine. 
2dly. Crystallized iodic acid, or a concentrated solution of 
this acid, is susceptible of being decomposed by neutral 
azotized bodies ; but a dilute solution of this acid cannot be 
decomposed by them unless there be added concentrated 
sulphuric acid, crystallizable acetic acid, oxalic, citric, or 
tartaric acid. 
Sdly. Iodic acid should not be employed as a test of mor- 
phine without the greatest caution. 
4thly. Perchloride of gold produces such effects with the 
vegetable alkalies, as serve to distinguish morphine, brucine, 
and strychnine from each other. 
Before adverting to the particular tests for strychnine, the 
more especial object of this paper, we may be permitted to 
notice its toxicological action on animals generally, with the 
source whence it is derived. For this purpose we avail our- 
selves of the pages of a contemporary journal, from which 
we make the following extract : 
“ In Ceylon and several districts of India grows a mode- 
rate-sized tree, with thick shining leaves, and a short crooked 
stem. In the fruit season it is readily recognised by its rich 
orange-coloured berries, about as large as golden pippins ; 
the rind is hard and smooth, and covers a white soft pulp, 
the favorite food of many kinds of birds, within which are 
flat round seeds, not an inch in diameter, ash-gray in colour, 
and covered with very minute silky hairs. The Germans 
fancy they can discover a resemblance in them to gray eyes, 
and call them crows’-eyes, but the likeness is purely imagi- 
nary. The tree is the Strychnos nux vomica, and the seed is 
the deadly poison nut. The latter was early used as a medi- 
cine by the Hindoos, and its nature and properties under- 
stood by Oriental doctors, long before it was known to 
foreign nations. Dog-killer and Fish-scale are two of its 
Arabic names. It is stated that at present the natives of 
Hindostan often take it for many months continuously, in 
much the same way as an opium-eater eats opium. They 
commence with taking the eighth of a nut a day and gra- 
dually increase their allowance to an entire nut, which would 
be about twenty grains. If they eat it directly before or after 
food, no unpleasant effects are produced ; but if they neglect 
this precaution, spasms result. 
Ci Powdered nux vomica, which is one of the forms in which 
the drug is preserved, has an extremely bitter taste, and 
smells like liquorice. As a medicine it acts, in very small 
xxix. 51 
