NUX VOMICA (Neo-Lat., vomit nut, from Lat. vax. nut, and Neo-Lat. romicus, relating to vomit, from Lat. rotacre, to vomit). The phar macopoial name of the seed of Strych Us ilThe romieu, or poison nut. The seeds, which are im ported from the East Indies, are nearly circular and fiat, about an inch in diameter. umbilicated and slightly convex on one side, externally of an ash-gray color. thickly covered with short satiny hairs. internally translucent, tough, and horny, intensely hitter, and inodorous.
The nux vomica tree is a native of Coro mandel, Ceylon, and other parts of the East Indies. It is a tree of moderate size, with round ish-oblong, stalked, smooth leaves, mid terminal corymbs. The fruit is a globular berry, about as large as a small orange, one-celled, with a brittle shell, and several seeds lodged in a white gelatinous pulp. The bark is sometimes known as false .1nyostura hark, having been confounded with Angostura bark in consequenee of a com mercial fraud; but its properties are very dif ferent, as it is very poisonous.
The seeds contain (in addition to inert mat ters, such as gum, :-*tarch, woody fibre, etc.) two alkaloids closely related to each other, which act as powerful poisons on the animal frame. and speedily occasion violent tetanic convulsions and death. These alkaloids or bases are named strych nine and brneine (qq.v.).
Nux Monica is poisonous in a greater or lesser degree to most animals. In very small doses,
its effects upon man are those of a general tonic, acting as a stimulant to digestion, circulation, respiration, and the nervous system. It seems to exert a selective action upon the cells of the an terior bone of the spinal cord. In larger doses there is a disordered state of the muscular sys tem: the limbs tremble; a slight rigidity or stiffness is felt when an attempt is made to put the muscles in action; respiration is jerky and there is a sense of uneasiness. If the use of the medicine is continued these effects increase in intensity, and the voluntary muscles are thrown into a convulsed slate by very slight eaw.es—as, for example, by inspiring more deeply than usual, or even by turning, in bed. In paralysis the effects are most marked in the paralyzed parts. In poisonous doses the symp toms are like those of tetanus, hut with the muscles of the jaw the last to he affected. fol lowed by death. It is difficult to say what is the smallest dose that would prove fatal to an adult. Thirty grains of the powdered nuts. given by mistake to a patient, destroyed life. Three grains of the extract have proved fatal, half a grain of sulphate of strychnine caused deatIrin fourteen minutes. Its chemical antidote is tan nin, which forms a partially insoluble compound.