58 NUX VOMICA. 
unusual to mix with, or substitute for them, the fruit of 
the berry-bearing alder, and of the dog-berry tree. 
The fraud is, however, easily detected on examination ; 
for the buck-thorn berries have each four seeds, which 
the others have not. 
The inner bark of the buck-thorn is said to yield a 
medicine preferable to that afforded by the berries, but 
it is an extremely powerful one. 
71. NUX VOMICA, or VOMIC NUT, is a round, flat 
seed, about an inch in diameter, of greyish brown colour, and 
horny consistence, the produce of a tree (Strychnos nux vo- 
tnica) which grows in the East Indies. 
The tree is of large size, and has somewhat oval leaves, in 
pairs, each marked ivith three or five strong ribs. The young 
branches have swelled joints. The flowers are in a kind of 
umbels at the extremity of the branches. 
The fruit which produces the vomic nut is a species 
of berry, about the size of a small apple, and covered 
with a hard substance somewhat resembling that of the 
pomegranate (154-), and of beautiful orange colour 
when ripe, This fruit is filled with a pulp which con- 
tains the seeds. 
There is so great a consumption of nux vomica, that 
the quantity vended at the East India Company's sales, 
in 1808, was about five tons' weight, and its price 
about nineteen shillings per hundred weight, exclusive 
of the duty. It is imagined that public brewers some- 
times use this drug in the adulteration of ale and porter, 
for the purpose of rendering it more intoxicating than 
it otherwise would be. 
It is employed for the destruction of vermin ; and is 
said to be quickly fatal to dogs, foxes, wolves, and 
most other quadrupeds. When pounded and mix i 
with oatmeal, it is used for the killing of rats. Y-t 
deleterious as this drug is, it has lately been employed 
on the Continent, as a medicine of great efficacy, in 
spasmodic affections of the bowels, and some other 
complaints ; but its administration ought only to be 
attempted by medical men. 
