666 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS; [February 17,1872. 
mouth. In earlier times they merely bruised the cap¬ 
sules and steeped them for a certain time in water, 
drinking the infusion, which was called “ tejarro,” or 
sometimes “ poss ” (the poppy). Some idea of the pre¬ 
sent prevalence of opium-eating in India may he gathered 
from the fact that the mere licence fees for one year 
amounted to the enormous sum of £493,943. The lucra¬ 
tive nature of this trade may he conceived when I tell 
you that last year it was discovered that several of the 
opium dealers in Calcutta had no less than seventeen 
shops a-piece, solely for the sale of this drug. 
Prevalent as the vice of opium eating (with all its dire 
consequences) is in India—vast numbers of infatuated 
wretches having accustomed themselves to consume large 
quantities, varying from 9 to 180 grains of pure opium 
daily,—we have no grounds for believing that this drug 
is frequently used in those districts in which opium is 
not grown, either as a means of suicide or of murder. 
But in opium-growing districts this drug is very fre¬ 
quently used with intention to cause death. You are 
aware that amongst several tribes in India there obtains 
a systematic practice of destroying the lives of all the 
female infants, and opium is very frequently the means 
employed; either in the form of a small pill which the 
child is made to swallow, or, as is more recently the 
custom, by rubbing the nipples of the mother with opium. 
In this latter way it is insensibly imbibed with the milk 
by the infant, and thus life is extinguished. Unlike 
datura, opium is not much used in India for facilitating 
the commission of theft. The action of the drug is less 
rapid and certain than that of the datura ; its taste and 
smell are well known to all the natives, and can hardly 
he disguised; and besides, persons accustomed to the 
practice of opium-eating would not he easily deceived. 
Strychnia .—Strychnia is so very seldom made use of 
as a poison in India, that a very few words on this sub¬ 
ject will suffice. One of the forms in which it is found 
is in a species of loranthus ( Viscum monicum), a parasite 
which grows on the nux-vomica trees, and which has 
been found to possess poisonous properties similar to 
those of the tree on which it grows. It is called kuchila 
in Hindustan, and the natives there often take the 
kuchila-nut morning and evening, continuously for many 
months, beginning with gr. and increasing the dose 
to an entire nut, weighing about 20 grains. If taken 
immediately before or after meals, no unpleasant effect 
is produced, hut if this precaution is neglected, spasms 
are apt to ensue. This kuchila—as well as its ally, nux 
vomica—or strychnia, is used as a stimulant, sometimes 
with a view of supplanting the habit of opium-eating. 
It is common, too, amongst the Hindoos and Mahomedans 
to use nux vomica as an aphrodisiac. A seed of nux 
vomica is placed for two or three days in the earth under 
a pot of water. The hark thus becomes easily separable; 
then with a pair of scissors the seed is cut into very fine 
chips, not thicker than the nail; one of these is taken 
with the food once or twice daily. Strychnia is seldom 
if ever employed in medicine by the Hindoos, owing to 
its dangerous properties, hut it is sometimes used for a 
very pernicious purpose by the distillers, who add a 
quantity of it in the process of distilling arrack to render 
the spirit more intoxicating. 
Nux vomica is very commonly found in the bazaars or 
markets of India, hut it would appear to he by no means 
frequently employed in that country as a means of de¬ 
stroying life. It is extremely interesting to note that 
the experience of practitioners in India entirely coincides 
with the most modern views of the profession in this 
country, as to the antidotal power of tobacco in strychnia 
poisoning. The physiological experiments of the Rev. 
Professor Haughton are very conclusive that strychnia 
and nicotine are reciprocally antagonistic, and these are 
confirmed by clinical experience in this country. In a 
case of strychnia poisoning, nicotine in doses of a minim 
should he given in warm sherry or brandy and water— 
to be repeated if necessary ; and should nicotine not he 
at hand (as is very likely), half an ounce of any kind of 
tobacco should he boiled for a few seconds in half a pint 
of water. The fluid is then to he strained, and its tem¬ 
perature sufficiently reduced for drinking purposes by 
cold water, and a fourth part of this should be at once 
administered. Should the spasms continue, the dose 
may he repeated, hut should complete muscular relaxa¬ 
tion ensue, we should he content. 
Lai Chitra. —This poison is derived from the plant 
Plumbago rosea , belonging to the Plumbaginacecc, or “Lead- 
wort Order.” This is a very common plant through¬ 
out India. The vesicant properties of the root were 
noticed by Burman, and other old writers, hut Sir William 
O’Shaughnessy was the first to institute a series of trials 
with it. As the result of clinical observation in between 
300 and 400 cases, he states that he found the root-hark 
rubbed into a paste with water and a little flour, and 
applied to the skin, occasioned pain in about five minutes, 
which increased in severity till, in a quarter of an hour, 
it was equal to that of an ordinary blister. The paste 
was removed in half an hour, and within twelve or 
eighteen hours afterwards a large uniform blister, filled 
with serum, followed. The blistered surfaces were found 
to heal readily without troublesome ulceration. On the 
whole it appears to he a cheap substitute for cantharides, 
possessing the additional advantage of not causing irrita¬ 
tion of the genito-urinary organs. Taken internally it 
is an acrid stimulant, and in large doses acts as a nar- 
cotico-acrid poison, in which character it is not unfre- 
quently employed by the people of Bengal. Its action 
is apparently directed chiefly to the uterine system, and 
hence it is one of the articles in use amongst the natives 
for procuring abortion. For this purpose the scraped 
bark-root is introduced per vaginam into the os uteri. 
Death not unfrequently results from the introduction of 
this highly acrid agent, inflammation of the uterus and 
peritoneum rapidly following its use. 
Bose. —The dose of the fresh root, when beaten up into 
a paste (when used as an abortive agent), is from 1 to 
2 drachms. An embrocation, formed by macerating the 
root in any bland oil, is used externally in rheumatic and 
paralytic cases. Some tribes use the root topically for 
the cure of toothache, and in these cases it appears to act 
as a sialogogue. In southern India, the dried root (which 
is comparatively inert) is in high repute as a remedy in 
secondary syphilis and leprosy. This plant, which is 
cultivated extensively in gardens throughout India, 
owes its activity to a peculiar crystalline principle, called 
“plumbagin.” This “plumbagin” occurs in brilliant 
yellow crystals, of sweetish hut acrid and hot taste, easily 
fusible, partially volatile, scantily soluble in cold and 
feebly in boiling water, very soluble in alcohol and 
ether, in the concentrated acid3, and in alkaline solu¬ 
tions. With subacetate of lead a crimson-red coloured 
precipitate is formed, which constitutes a very valuable 
and delicate test, available in medico-legal inquiries. 
Nerium Odorum. —The Neriinn Odorum (Kunnar), or 
sweet-scented oleander, belongs to the Natural Order 
Apocynacecc (or dog-bane Order), an Order closely allied 
to the Loganiacecc , or strychnia Order. This sweet- 
scented oleander is much cultivated in India for the sake 
of its flowers, which are used in certain religious cere¬ 
monies by the Hindoos. All parts of the plant, especially 
the root, are recognized by the natives as poisonous; 
and as such are used for criminal and suicidal purposes. 
It is reputed in Bengal as the best antidote for snake¬ 
bite, and it is also frequently employed for the purposes 
of criminal abortion. It is a curious fact that the root of 
the hill plant is much more violently poisonous than 
that of the garden kind, and that jealous women frequently 
have recourse to it; indeed, it is proverbial amongst the 
females of the hills, when quarrelling, to hid each other 
to “ go and eat the root of the oleander.” It is, moreover, 
frequently resorted to for the purpose of self-destruction 
by the Hindoo women, when tormented by jealousy. It 
is, perhaps, more extensively used as a poison in Bom- 
