The strychnos tribe, including Nux Vomica, has a specific action on the spinal marrow, producing 
tetanus and convulsions, but rarely coma or delirium. Squills and Foxglove (Digitalis) produce symptoms 
of narcotism, i. e. they affect the brain ; but these symptoms are commonly preceded by vomiting, with 
violent pain in the stomach and bowels, indicative of an irritant action. 
Thus, then, there is great variety in the effects produced by this class of poisons, and the same may be 
said of the post-mortem appearances in the bodies of those who have been killed by them. In some 
instances the stomach and intestines are inflamed: in others not. Where the person has died under 
symptoms of narcotism, traces of cerebral congestion are occasionally found; but cases of fatal poisoning 
by these vegetable substances are so rare, that we have yet much to learn respecting the morbid changes 
which they produce. 
Orfila and other toxicologists have remarked that the narcotic and irritant effects of these vegetable 
substances seldom appear in the same case. The symptoms are those either of narcotism or irritation, and 
they sometimes alternate : when taken in large doses, they seem to act principally as Narcotics, in small 
doses, as Irritants. 
Analysis . — Most of the narcotico-irritant poisons owe their deleterious effects to the presence of an 
alkaloidal principle similar to morphia, and susceptible of insulation by complex chemical processes. There 
is, however, considerable difficulty in extracting these alkaloids from the respective vegetables; and when 
extracted, the chemical differences among them, in respect to the action of tests, are very slight. Indeed, 
better evidence of the poisonous nature of a poisonous liquid would commonly be derived from the exhi- 
bition of a portion of it to animals, than from the application of chemical tests. In a medico-legal point 
of view, there are, with few exceptions, no chemical tests for these poisons, when they are mixed up with 
organic liquids, upon which reliance can be placedi. When the vegetable has been used, either in the shape 
of seeds, leaves, berries, or root, then good evidence may be sometimes procured by searching with or 
without the aid of a good microscope for the botanical characters of the plant; these parts of the plant, 
from their indigestible nature, may be found in the vomited matters or evacuations during life, or in the 
alimentary canal after death. The broken leaves may be separated by washing, as they are quite insoluble 
in water: they may be therefore easily collected, dried on mica and examined by the microscope, which, 
under the hands of a good botanist, may thus reveal the nature of the poison. This source of evidence will, 
however, often fail, owing to the poison having been taken, in the form of extract, infusion or decoction, or 
even, in some instances, owing to the digestive action of the stomach itself on the vegetable matter. The 
active alkaloidal principle is no doubt absorbed in all cases of poisoning; but it has not yet been satis- 
factorily detected by chemical processes in the blood or secretions. 
Some years since, I was consulted in a case in which there was hardly a medical doubt that the life of 
a person had been destroyed by the decoction of a narcotico-irritant vegetable. The fact, however, could 
not be clearly established. It is much to be regretted, that post-mortem examinations are not enforced as 
an indispensable part of a coroner’s inquest, in all instances of narcotico-irritant poisoning. There is no 
department of toxicology so defective as this; only a few pathological characters have been observed in cases 
derived almost exclusively from foreign authorities; and in regard to the effects of some of these poisons on 
the human body nothing whatever is known except that they destroy life. The acquisition of any sort of 
medical experience on these points, in England, is unfortunately left to be a matter of the purest accident; 
and yet on a trial for murder by any of these poisons, our law-authorities would expect that a witness should 
be perfectly conversant with their effects on the body, while the only possible source of acquiring such 
knowledge in a satisfactory manner, is entirely cut off from the medical profession! Some well-informed 
coroners have endeavoured, in performing their duties, thus to benefit the public; but the generality of them 
act on the principle that the inquest in such cases is merely to record the fact of death from an external 
view of the body. 
Treatment . — The treatment of a case of narcotico-irritant poisoning consists in promoting early vomiting 
by emetics, or in drawing off the contents of the stomach by the stomach-pump. If there should be reason 
to suppose, from the seat of pain, that the poison has descended into the bowels, then laxative enemata 
may be used. Recoveries have taken place when the poison has been thus removed, even although formi- 
dable symptoms had set in. Cold effusion, or stimulants, may occasionally be required: the patient, if 
inclined to sleep, should always be kept roused. There is no certain chemical antidote to any of these 
poisons. Tannin precipitates all the alkaloids: hence it has been strongly recommended as an antidote. 
No injury can follow its exhibition: and a decoction of black tea will be a good substitute for oak-bark or 
galls. Coffee may be used as a stimulant. With respect to electricity, Ducros found that the negative 
current was beneficial to animals poisoned by strychnia or brucin; while the positive current produced con- 
vulsions, and accelerated death. (Canstatt, Jahresbericht, 1844, v. 297-) The narcotico-irritants appear to 
have no corrosive properties: — some of them give rise to a sense of burning heat in the throat and stomach, 
— this is a local action entirely independent of chemical change; it is especially witnessed in the case of 
monkshood.” 
