symptoms, however, abated, and on the fourth day disappeared, leaving her exceedingly weak.[1]
This and the previous case show clearly the double narcotico-acrid properties of the poison.
With regard to the dose requisite to prove fatal, the smallest fatal dose of the alcoholic extract yet recorded is three grains, which was the quantity taken in the case from the Parisian bulletins: Hoffmann mentions a fatal case caused by two fifteen grain doses of the powder;[2] and in Hufeland's Journal there is another caused by two drachms, which was fatal in two hours.[3]—A dog has been killed by eight grains of the powder, and a cat by five.[4] It is even said that a dog has been killed by two grains.[5]
It has been thought, from some observations by Mr. Baker on the medicinal use of nux vomica in Hindostan that, by the force of habit, the constitution may become to a certain extent accustomed to large doses of this poison, in the same manner as it acquires the power of enduring large doses of opium. The natives of Hindostan, often take it morning and evening for many months continuously, beginning with an eighth part of a nut, and gradually increasing the dose to an entire nut, or about twenty grains. If it is taken either immediately before or after meals, it never occasions any unpleasant effects; but if this precaution be neglected, spasms are apt to ensue.[6] As it is found unsafe, however, to increase the dose beyond one nut, and the poison is taken in the form of coarse powder, in which state it must be slowly acted on by the fluid in the stomach, it is probable that the modifying influence of habit is inconsiderable. Habit certainly does not familiarize the system to strychnia used medicinally. The same dose, which has once excited its peculiar physiological action, will for the most part suffice to excite it again, however frequently the dose may be repeated.—The facts mentioned by Mr. Baker show that nux vomica is not a cumulative poison; and European experience, in the instance of strychnia, is to the same effect.
Morbid Appearances.—The morbid appearances differ according to the period at which death occurs. In Mr. Ollier's case, where death took place in an hour, the appearances were insignificant. The stomach was almost natural, the vessels of the brain somewhat congested, the heart flaccid, empty, and pale. In the case in Hufeland's Journal there was general inflammation of the stomach, duodenum and part of the jejunum. In Cloquet's case, a slower one, there was very little appearance of inflammation. In that from the Parisian bulletins, on the contrary, the stomach was highly inflamed, the intestines violet-coloured, in many places easily lacerated and apparently gangrenous. In an interesting dissection of a case, which
- ↑ Tacheron, London Med. Repository, xix. 456.
- ↑ Med. Rat. System, ii. 175.
- ↑ Journ. der Practischen Heilkunde, iv. 492.
- ↑ Hillefeld, Exp. quædam circa venena. Gott. 1760. Quoted by Marx, die Léhre von den Giften, i. ii. 26.
- ↑ Rossi, Exp. de nonnullis plantis quæ pro venenatis habentur. Pisis, 1762. See Marx, i. ii. 29.
- ↑ Trans. of the Calcutta Med. and Phys. Soc. i. 138.
