N. 0. I.OGANIACEffi. 
839 
in palsy, relaxation of the muscles and tendons, debility and 
chronic rheumatism. It may be applied externally and given 
internally, in doses of from 1 to 2 dangs (Dymock). The 
Pharmacopoeia Indica describes the seed as a valuable nervine 
tonic and stimulant, and, in overdoses, a virulent poison, and 
recommends its use in paralytic and neuralgic affections in 
atonic diarrhoea and chronic dysentery, also in habitual con- 
stipation, pi’olapsus of the rectum, spermatorrhoea, &c. It has 
also been employed in intermittent fevers, epilepsy, diabetes, 
anaemia, chlorosis and other affections The bitter taste and 
highly poisonous action of this substance are chiefly due to the 
presence of strychnine and brucine, the proportion of tl;e 
former varying from \ to £ per cent. 
In the Concan, small doses of the seeds are given with 
aromatics in colic, and the juice of the fresh wood (obtained 
by applying heat to the middle of a straight stick, to both ends 
of which a small pot has been tied) is given in doses of a few 
drops in cholera and acute dysentery. In some districts small 
quantities of the seeds are taken, apparently as a stimulant, or 
in lieu of opium. (Dymock). 
“ The leaves when applied as poultice, promote healthy 
action in sloughing wounds or ulcers, more especially in those 
cases when maggots have formed. It arrests any further 
formation of them, and those in the deeper parts perish im- 
mediately when the poultice is applied. The root-bark is 
ground up into a fine paste with lime-juice, and made into 
pills which are said to be effectual in cholera” (Dr. Thompson, 
in Watt’s Dictionary). 
An oil from the seeds is employed medicinally. 
“I have found strychnine, very useful in malarious fevers of 
a low type ” (Dr. Hazlitt, in Watt’s Dictionary). 
“ Strychnine is a valuable drug in the bronchitis of the 
debilitated. Its action as an expectorant appears to be con- 
siderable ” (Surgeon S. H. Browne, in Watt’s Dictionary). 
In modern medicine nux-vomica is prescribed with advantage in the 
catarrhal dyspepsia, accompanied by flatulence and want of contractile 
power in the intestines which is so common in India. In such cases it appears 
