It is in the second degree of action that the characteristic effects of aur-rornica begin to appear. The patient experiences a feeling of weight and weakness in the movements of the limbs, inducing him to remain at rest ; while hia mind is restless, sad, depressed, and anxious for solitude and darkness, as he is peculiarly sensitive to light, noise, or the movement of the surrounding objects. With an augmentation of the dose, these phenomena are increased, and the contact of any external body causes a feeling like an electric ahock, the voluntary muscles are no longer under the control of the will, and the individual staggers on the least attempt at walking. At the beginning of these occurrences the pulse is hard and quickened ; the gums, checks, and eyes reddened, and the respiration more frequent; but when the nervous system is more affected, the hardness of the pulse subsides, the countenance becomes of an ashy paleness, the eyes appear sunken, articulation is difficult and indistinct, breathing is laborious, and accompanied with violent spasms of the larynx, and the other muscles of respiration are irregular in their action. After these symptoms have lasted six or twelve hours, they subside, and a great increase of the secretions is observed to follow ; itching of the skin, with much perspiration, even accompanied with an eruption of vesicles or large blebs ; the secretions of the serous membranes, of the kidneys, and of the mucous membranes, are sensibly increased, those of the latter some times becoming bloody. During this period the patient complains of heat in the stomach and throat, of thirst, of foul taste, and rancid eructations, with nausea, and occasionally even vomiting. While the augmented secretions are taking place, the more prominent nervous symptoms disappear ; and in a few days the auffcrcr recovers entirely from the debility and excessive sensibility.
The third degree of action manifests itself by tetanus and asphyxia, occurring in single paroxysms, alternating with paralytic torpor. The paroxysms become longer, and the remissions shorter, in which how ever, till death close the scene, the intellect remains unaffected. While the voluntary muscles are entirely withdrawn from the control of the will, the pulse sinks and becomes slower, the breathing more and more laborious (" the external muscles of the chest may be felt during the fits as hard almost as bone ; and, according to an experiment of Wcpfer, the diaphragm partakes of the spasm of the external muscles :" Christison). The belly swells and exhibits blue marks, the countenance is livid, and in a paroxysm of tetanic rigidity the breathing ceases, though the heart's action and the peristaltic motion of the intestines continue for some time ; and, if an artery be opened, black carbonaceous blood issues. " Death, however, does not always take place by tetanus : in some cases the departure of the convulsions has been followed by a fatal state of general and indescribable exhaustion." (Christison.) Thus,
after the spasms have lasted twelve, sixteen, or twenty-four hours, and completely disappeared, the individual has neverthelees died, after being apparently in a state of safety. This has been ascribed to the depressing effect on the heart's action, through the medium of the nervous system, of long-continued pain. Or the individual may suffer an attack, after the primary symptoms have subsided, of inflammation of the stomach and intestines, which may or may not prove fatal.
Vomiting does not always occur, though the name would seem to imply the frequency of this symptom.
Nu.x-romica is important not only for its formidable properties, but for the illustrations it furnishes to certain physiological doctrines. Thus, when used in cases where a portion only of the body is paralysed, it excites convulsions in the paralysed part before any action be observed in the sound parts. "The paralysed parts are the seat of tetanic shocks, of a prickly sensation, and of a perspiration, which is not observed elsewhere. In hemiplegia the sound side of the body remains tranquil, while the affected one is the seat of extreme agitation ; the tetanic attacke succeed each other rapidly, and an abundant exudation takes place. Even an anomalous eruption has been observed, while the healthy side has been perfectly free. One side of the tongue is sometimes sensible of a decidedly bitter taste, which is not perceptible on the other. If the dose be augmented, both aides become the seat of tetanic action, though not equally so." (3Iagendie.) It is also very remarkable that the contact of any external body with any part of the frame of an individual uncler•the influence of nu.c•rorniea which is supplied with nerves originating from the spinal cord, immediately excites convulsive actions. In persons poisoned by sex-romica, whether the seeds or bark (false Angostura bark), the mere act of touching the skin to feel the pulse has excited again the convulsive motions. Of these two phenomena, namely, the action of strychnia on tho paralysed limbs previous to causing any obvious effect on the sound organs, and of the contact of an extraneous body exciting the tetanic throes, the following explanation has been given by Mr. Grainger :—" Strychnia acts by preference on the paralytic limb or limbs, because the cerebral control is removed from the paralysed limb. If the cord be divided, the pure spinal power remaining, when the skin is touched the limb is retracted, and must be retracted, because the cerebral control is wanting. So when the spinal cord is stimulated by strychnia, it must act on the limb or limbs from which the cerebral power is withdrawn." Nux-romica acts most rapidly when introduced into a vein, and in other instances in the ratio of the absorbing power of the part ; but it produces no effect when applied directly to a nerve or to the brain.