CONTROLLED BY THE NUX VOMICA. 
795 
numbers until it reaches 7 or 9. It is superfluous to add, that 
such a mode of treatment could never be attended by satisfactory 
results, and, consequently, when the practice of the veterinary art 
began to be conducted on scientific principles, the administration 
of this drug was generally abandoned. Of late years, however, 
new experiments have proved that its influence is exerted chiefly 
or solely on the nervous system, and it has consequently been em- 
ployed in the treatment of paralysis. The result has proved that 
it is useful in affections of this kind. Theory, however, would 
lead us to believe that it is not applicable to every species of palsy, 
and that it would be useless, or perhaps dangerous, in those cases 
in which the affection assumes an inflammatory character, or 
where there is reason to suspect ramollissement of the cerebral 
substance or of the spinal cord, for it would only augment the 
lesions which it was intended to remove or abate.” 
Lebas, who calls himself a veterinary pharmacien, and who has 
published a large work on veterinary pharmacy, but whose autho- 
rity is inferior to that of Moiroud, says that “Experiments on the 
medicinal properties of the nux vomica, with respect to our domes- 
ticated animals, have not been brought to any satisfactory conclu- 
sion. It, however, possesses an anthelmintic property, and its 
prolonged usage in minute quantities stimulates the stomach, and 
increases the appetite of the horse.” 
We should put just as much confidence in this as in the opinion 
of a great many of our own compounders and manufacturers of 
drugs. 
It will not be displeasing to our readers to be made acquainted 
Avith the result of the use of the nux vomica in the principal French 
school, and among French practitioners, ror the cure of palsy. 
We quote from the recently published edition of Hurtrel D’Arboval’s 
Dictionary. 
M. Barthelemy, then professor of the Veterinary School at Alfort, 
experimented on a yard-dog, that had, during eight days, been 
affected with complete palsy of the left fore leg. This had been 
preceded during four months by convulsive motions of that limb, 
resembling those produced by chorea. After having continued the 
exhibition of the nux vomica during more than six weeks Avithout 
any remission of the symptoms, he considered the disease as in- 
curable, and destroyed the sufferer. On examining the carcass, he 
found that a scirrhous tumour, formed by the enlarged lymphatic 
ganglions at the entrance into the chest, pressed upon the left 
brachial vessels and nerves. A cure was, therefore, out of the 
question here. Another yard dog, eighteen months old, and that 
had been ill about twelve days, had his head inclined to the left, 
and his neck bent to such a degree, that his left ear and part of the 
occipital bone lay upon the shoulder of the same side. His ap- 
