794 
NEURALGIA, Oil RHEUMATISM, 
if it agreed with the dog. The honorarium was , of course, pe- 
remptorily refused, and the affair was placed to the score of the 
remembrance of old kindness. The dog died within a quarter of 
an hour after he took the first dose. The owner felt exceedingly 
aggrieved, for he was told by druggists and human practitioners 
who knew nothing about the matter, and also by others who knew 
better, that it was an outrageous dose — his former partner, hearing 
of the matter, refused to continue the annuity on the consideration 
of which he retired, and he has been compelled to return to the 
practice of his profession. The experiments which he is now 
making on the power of the strychnia, in the cases which are here 
recorded, assure him that he was not guilty of the very bad prac- 
tice attributed to him ; and, if fewer of the hours that remain to 
him will be spent in the quietude which he expected, his zeal in 
the cause to which he has devoted himself will not abate while he 
has life. 
Our continental neighbours have instituted many experiments 
on the power of strychnia, as a poison ; but they say little of it 
as a medicament. Professor Moiroud, whose Materia Medica 
is of the highest authority, thus speaks of it : — “ The nux vomica 
is one of the most powerful modificators of the animal econo- 
my. A weak dose of it will produce on all animals the most 
remarkable disturbance, differing in different animals, but in all 
distinguished by the same characteristic phenomena, and not per- 
mitting us to mistake them. The influence of this poison is first 
recognized by the following symptoms : slight contractions of many 
or all the muscles of voluntary action, and which gradually increase 
in intensity. To these succeed spasmodic movements of the toes — 
incessant motion of the feet, followed by spasmodic stiffness of the 
trunk and limbs — tetanus — a circular rolling of the eye — dilatation 
of the pupils — extreme irritability, so that the animal starts at the 
least noise or touch — the respiration laborious and accelerated — 
at intervals, some moments of intermission, presently followed by 
new exacerbations. Finally, there supervenes a tetanic rigidity, 
every moment increasing, until the parietes of the thorax become 
immoveable, respiration ceases, and the animal dies of suffocation.” 
“ The nux vomica is an excitant of the nervous system, and 
principally of the spinal cord, producing violent and prolonged 
spasm of the muscles of the thorax, both external and internal, and 
a consequent inability to perform the function of inspiration.” 
As a therapeutic agent, the nux vomica has been long employed 
in a manner altogether empirical, and principally as a remedy for 
farcy and glanders. Many farriers secretly employ it in the 
treatment of these diseases. They usually begin with one nut, 
rasped to a fine powder, and gradually increase the dose by odd 
