792 
NEUltALGIA, OR RHEUMATISM, 
relates, in his invaluable paper on Poisons, some experiments on 
its power in the horse. Two ounces of the powder of the nut 
destroyed a horse in a quarter of an hour. An ounce was given 
to another horse, and in seven hours every symptom of poisoning 
had disappeared. 
Of the strychnia, or essential principle of the nut, the same 
gentleman — and to him we are indebted for much that is generally 
and advantageously known of the power of drugs on our patients — 
tells us that its influence is conjectured to be principally on the 
motor tract of the spinal cord, and that it restores the lost power of 
the muscular system : he adds that 15 grains of it were sufficient to 
destroy a horse. He acknowledges that he is indebted to Mr. E. 
Braby, and Mr. J. B. Simonds, for the history of cases of partial 
and general paralysis in the horse. These gentlemen would confer 
much obligation on their professional brethren if they would pub- 
lish the records of those cases. He also says, that the Editor of 
this work recommends it for chorea in the dog. 
If that Editor were to confess the truth, he would say that he 
has failed much oftener than he has succeeded. He has put on 
record the unsuccessful administration of it to two of the conge- 
ners of the dog, according to some zoologists- — the jackal; and he 
has also acknowledged that in the only two cases in which he 
ventured to give this medicine in paralysis in cattle he failed. 
He lately gave the strychnia to a Capuchin monkey, of small size, 
that had suddenly almost lost the use of his hinder extremities. 
He began with a good purge of calomel and antimonial powder, 
and then ordered one-eighth of a grain of the strychnia morning 
and night. This was continued during a fortnight, when, the 
animal not improving, but the contrary, he increased the dose to 
one-sixth of a grain. There were none of those exacerbations, 
or tetanic spasms, which some have described; but the patient 
was becoming thinner and weaker every day. He, therefore, dis- 
continued the medicine, and bounded his treatment to the making 
the poor animal as comfortable as he could while it lived. It died 
the day before this was written, and its body was sent to a friend, 
who has promised to give an account of the post-mortem appear- 
ances. 
On August the 17th, 1839, the following entry occurs in the 
“ Case Book.” “ Great-eared Owl — I have observed for seve- 
ral days past a somewhat peculiar appearance of the countenance 
of this bird. He has not looked fairly at me, and there was some 
uncertainty in his manner of taking his food. A person who was 
not looking out for evil would pass him a hundred times and see 
nothing amiss. I am now sure of what it is. It is gutta serena. 
The eye is as bright as ever, and follows the least noise, but not 
any motion without noise. I introduced a stick, slowly and cau- 
