Am'ja°n.fi8P9ialrm'}      Leaves  of  Strychnos  Nux-  Vomica.  3 1 
The  poisonous  nature  of  the  leaves  has  never  to  my  knowledge 
been  investigated,  but  being  informed  of  some  suspected  cases  of 
poisoning  of  animals  from  their  use  as  fodder,  I  considered  this  a 
sufficient  reason  for  prosecuting  an  inquiry  into  the  subject.  Mr. 
J.  Cameron,  F.L.S.,  Bangalore,  about  a  month  ago  asked  if  fresh 
nux-vomica  was  known  to  be  poisonous,  informing  me  at  the  same 
time  that  a  gentleman  residing  near  him  had  lost  three  horses  from, 
it  was  supposed,  their  eating  the  leaves  of  the  tree.  Another  case 
was  that  of  a  cow  dying  under  suspicious  circumstances,  and  nux- 
vomica  trees  were  growing  in  the  compound  where  she  was  in  the 
habit  of  grazing.  "The  cow  had  convulsions,  bled  at  the  mouth 
and  nostrils,  and  only  lived  for  a  short  time  from  the  commence- 
ment of  the  attack."  Mr.  J.  F.  Duthie  has  drawn  up  a  list  of  Indian 
fodder-yielding  trees,  shrubs  and  herbs,  including  certain  bitter 
leaves  and  branches  of  the  Simarubeae  and  Meliaceae,  but  no  men- 
tion is  made  of  any  species  of  Strychnos  affording  edible  foliage. 
The  leaves  forwarded  from  Bangalore  were  very  variable  in  size, 
the  largest  being  4*^  in.  (113  mm.)  by  2^  in.  (63  mm.),  and  the 
smallest  2^  in.  (63  mm.)  by  1^  m-  (46  mm.),  petiole  from  to  ]/2 
in.,  oval  or  oval-rotundate,  rounded  or  somewhat  tapering  at  the 
base,  acute  at  the  apex  or  abnormally  rounded,  entire,  thick,  smooth, 
shining  on  both  sides,  mostly  three-  rarely  five-nerved  from  the 
base,  only  the  midrib  reaching  the  apex.  The  leaves  when  dried 
made  a  dark  green  powder  having  an  acidulous  and  bitter  taste. 
A  preliminary  examination  for  alkaloid  in  the  aqueous  solution 
of  an  alcoholic  extract  gave  abundant  evidence  of  its  presence  by 
giving  precipitates  with  tannin,  potassio-mercuric  iodide,  and  iodine 
and  bromine  solutions.  The  alkaloid  did  not  answer  to  strychnine 
when  the  sulphuric  acid  and  bichromate  of  potassium  test  was 
applied,  but  afforded  the  reaction  of  brucine  by  turning  a  vivid  red 
color  with  nitric  acid.  It  was  found  that  cold  alcohol  was  insufficient 
of  itself  to  dissolve  out  the  whole  of  the  alkaloid,  for  after  percolat- 
ing until  all  the  chlorophyll  and  soluble  substances  had  been 
removed  the  marc  was  still  bitter.  Alcohol  dissolved  out  0-3 15  per 
cent,  of  alkaloid  calculated  as  brucine.  Chloroform  with  25  per 
cent,  of  alcohol,  boiled  with  the  leaves  for  one  hour,  the  process 
adopted  by  Messrs.  Dunstan  and  Short  for  extracting  the  seeds, 
proved  to  be  very  satisfactory  in  exhausting  the  alkaloid,  as  the 
resulting  extract  contained  more  of  the  base  and  the  marc  was  free 
from  bitterness. 
