30  Leaves  of  Strychnos  Nux-Vomica.      { Am -/acnu |']8p9?arm' 
If  morphine  be  destroyed  in  the  organism,  its  destruction  would 
probably  occur,  Tauber  says,  in  the  liver,  kidneys  or  blood.*  In 
order  to  ascertain  whether  such  destruction  takes  place,  he  passed 
blood  containing  a  definite  quantity  of  morphine  through  excised 
but  living  organs  after  the  manner  employed  by  Schmiedeberg  and 
Bunge,  but  in  neither  the  liver  nor  the  kidneys  of  the  pig  could  he 
find  evidence  that  any  destruction  of  morphine  occurred. 
The  amount  of  morphine  in  the  blood  passed  through  was  not 
materially  decreased,  nor  was  it  in  any  way  destroyed,  according  to 
Tauber,  in  blood  arterialized  by  the  passage  through  it  of  air.  As 
there  is  no  evidence  that  any  considerable  quantity  of  morphine  is 
destroyed  in  the  system  or  excreted  by  the  urine,  it  seemed  to  Tauber 
probable  that  morphine  might  be  excreted  through  the  bowels. 
Alt  has  already  pointed  out  that  alter  injection  subcutaneously 
morphine  could  be  detected  in  the  stomach,  and  Vogt,  after  subcu- 
taneous injections  of  morphine  found  a  considerable  quantity  of  the 
alkaloid  in  the  faeces. 
Tauber  gives  an  experiment  which  seems  to  show  that  a  consider- 
able quantity  of  morphine  taken  into  the  organism  is  excreted  by 
,  the  bowels.  He  injected  during  ten  consecutive  days  small  quanti- 
ties of  morphine  into  a  dog  ;  altogether,  the  animal  received  about 
thirty-two  grains,  and  he  succeeded  in  recovering  from  the  faeces 
41-3  per  cent,  of  the  morphia.  This  latest  contribution,  then,  con- 
cerning the  fate  of  morphine  in  the  animal  organism,  points  to  the 
intestinal  tract  rather  than  the  kidneys  as  the  seat  of  the  excretion 
of  this  alkaloid. 
LEAVES  OF  STRYCHNOS  NUX-VOMICA. 
By  David  Hooper. 
The  leaves  of  the  nux-vomica  plant  are  little  used  in  Indian 
medicine,  as  the  seeds,  on  account  of  their  abundance  and  the  facility 
of  collection,  are  the  best  known  of  its  products.  The  bark,  wood  and 
roots  of  this  and  other  species  of  Strychnos  are  occasionally  admin- 
istered as  tonics  and  febrifuges.  The  leaves  are  made  into  a  decoc- 
tion and  applied  externally  in  paralysis  and  in  rheumatic  swellings 
of  the  joints.  The  juice  of  the  leaves  has  been  given  for  the  relief 
of  headaches.  They  have  also  been  known  to  make  very  effectual 
leaf-poultices  for  tumors  and  sprains ;  in  fact,  in  India  leaf-poultices 
are  made  from  very  numerous  and  widely  distributed  plants. 
