Nux vomica

“ Strychnine is a terrible poison, but nux vomica is a most valuable drug. In Greece criminals were sometimes forced to take their own lives by drinking a cup of hellebore; we in our day cure many diseases of the stomach with veratrum. If a drug which destroys life under given conditions saves it in others, why may not a disease germ which [556] is noxious in one set of circumstances prove beneficial when the circumstances are changed and the exhibition of the germ regulated by scientific principles.—San Francisco Call. ”

“ Fresh pills of quinine and red pepper uncoated and therefore producing definite effects on the taste before swallowing and on the mucous membrane of the stomach after swallowing, often prove the best remedy for persistent vomiting or for enduring nausea. A drop of nux vomica, taken every half hour with the definite warning that the patient must by no means take more, and that the bottle must be carefully protected lest anyone else should be poisoned, is often very efficient. ”

“ It requires the addition of honey to render it at all palatable.
To these were added great numbers of the fruit which yields a variety of the nux vomica, from which we derive that virulent poison strychnia. The pulp between the nuts is the part eaten, and it is of a pleasant juicy nature, having a sweet acidulous taste. The fruit itself resembles a large yellow orange, but the rind is hard, and, with the pips and bark, contains much of the deadly poison. They evince their noxious qualities by an intensely bitter taste. The nuts, swallowed inadvertently, cause considerable pain, but not death ”

“ If the attack is very severe, the animal falls on its haunches and may not be able to rise. Temperature, pulse and respiration, all are rather normal. Treatment should be directed to remove the cause of the disease. When there is colic or constipation, give purges. A half teaspoonful of extract of nux vomica, given in a pint of milk twice a day, is [230] very good. Pouring cold water from a height and then immediately hot water sometimes greatly strengthens the muscles and has its use in treating. ”

“ The charge is, that having been prepared by antimony, he was killed by strychnine. You have, no doubt, heard of the vegetable product known as nux vomica. In that nut or bean there resides a subtle and fatal poison which is capable of being extracted from it by the skill of the operative chemist, and of which the most minute quantity is fatal to animal life. From half to a quarter of a grain will destroy life—you may imagine, therefore, how minute is the dose. ”

“ We have ascertained the correctness of Ludwig’s observations.
Nux vomica dried at 100° C. yielded us when burnt with soda-lime 1·822 per cent. of nitrogen, indicating about 11·3 per cent. of protein substances. By boiling ether, we removed from the seeds 4·14 per cent. of fat; Meyer [1598] found it to yield butyric, capronic, caprylic, caprinic and other acids of the series of the common fatty acids, and also one acid richer in carbon than stearic acid. Nux vomica also contains mucilage and sugar. ”

“ If the paralysis be partial, it is better to give nux vomica or Ignatia amara by the mouth, in hopes of getting some beneficial astringent influence on the walls of the oesophagus.
In all instances the feeding of the patient is an important element in treatment. Masses of food arrested in the tube should be forced onward with the sound. In some cases nourishment must be habitually introduced through the stomach-tube and nutritive enemata be resorted to. ”

“ In cases where the stomach tolerates fluid, as our ability to await the action of the battery and capsicum have now enabled us to find Mr. Edgerton's, we may give from fifteen to twenty drops of the ordinary pharmaceutical tincture of nux vomica in a table-spoonful of water.
In the course of ten minutes we find a decided improvement in the pulse of the patient; he experiences great relief from his feelings of apprehension and distress about the epigastrium; and the most powerful tonic known to science begins dispatching its irresistible behests to every fibre of the organic life. ”

“ Most of them are much less disturbed in the afternoon than before. The drug treatment of the affection consists mainly in the use of nux vomica, but, not in the small doses of five or ten drops so often employed, but, according to the size of the individual, beginning with fifteen or twenty minims, thirty or forty drops, and gradually increased to physiological tolerance, when the dose should be set somewhat below that. ”

“ It is not unusual to find that the patient who is supposed to be taking nux vomica as an appetizer or a muscle tonic, or in order to produce heart equilibrium in the cardiac neuroses, is getting five drops, two and a half minims, three times a day, when he should be getting at least twenty drops with the same frequency. ”

“ 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 ”

“ If it is not convenient to remove the rick, observe the following method; take a quarter of a pound of the best nux vomica, put it into an old saucepan, with three quarts of water, boil it till it comes to two quarts, and put two 129pounds of treacle to it, in order to overcome the bitter taste of the nux vomica; then take some small earthen pans, into which pour some of this mixture, and set the pans in different places under the eaves of the ricks; the Mice being in want of water, will greedily drink of the mixture, which will kill them ”

“ Microscopic Structure—The hairs of nux vomica are of remarkable structure. They are formed as usual of the elongated cells of the epidermis, and have their walls thickened by secondary deposits, which are interrupted by longitudinally extended pores; they are a striking object in polarized light. The albumen is made up of large cells, loaded with albuminoid matters and oily drops, but devoid of starch. In water the thick walls of this parenchyme swell up and yield some mucilage; the cotyledons are built up of a narrow, much more delicate tissue, traversed by small fibro-vascular bundles. ”

“ The ointment recommended for piles may also be employed, but without opium, for no application of a sedative nature must be used. The constitutional measures will consist of tonics into which nux vomica enters. The food must be light and nourishing, and purgatives on no account must be administered. Cold will do good by invigorating the system, and should always be recommended. ”

“ A little stewed fruit and plenty of green vegetables will help to relieve this complication. When intractable, a teaspoonful of liquorice powder or a pill of aloes and nux vomica may be taken at night. A glassful of hot water taken the last thing at night is also of value. ”

“ Put a drop of tincture of camphor on a teaspoonful of sugar, mix thoroughly; then add 6 teaspoonfuls of hot water and give a teaspoonful of the mixture every ten minutes. This is indicated where the discharges are watery, and where there is vomiting and coldness of the feet and hands. Chamomilla is also an excellent remedy. Ipecac and nux vomica may also be given.
In giving homoeopathic remedies, give 5 or 6 pellets every 2 or 3 hours. ”

“ Beyond this, little is wanted except careful feeding as regards quantity and quality. Nux vomica 1⁄2 gr. twice a day will serve to restore tone. Further treatment will come naturally under catarrhal gastritis.
ACUTE GASTRIC INDIGESTION IN SWINE. Causes: fermented or putrid swill, spoilt vegetables, frozen aliments, caustic alkalies (powdered soaps) from kitchen, indigestible materials, poisons. Symptoms: dullness, grunting, restlessness, seeking seclusion, colics, vomiting, rumbling, tense, tucked up abdomen, diarrhœa. Treatment: emetic, bland acids, laxative, dieting, bitters, iron. ”

“ Ground nux vomica, or the bark of brucia antidysenterica, is boiled in dilute sulphuric acid, and the resulting decoction mixed with hydrate of lime (in excess) ; the crude precipitate thus obtained is boiled in alcohol (sp. gr. ·850) , and the tincture filtered whilst hot. A mixture of crude strychnia and brucia is deposited as the fluid cools, and the remainder is obtained by evaporation. This is powdered and digested in cold alcohol, which dissolves out the brucia; the solution furnishes crystals on spontaneous evaporation. It may be further purified by recrystallisation from alcohol. ”

“ We meet first with experiments made by investigators who perceived that observations on man and animals might lead to a better understanding of the action of drugs. In 1676 Wepfer and Conrad Brunner demonstrated on dogs the tetanizing action of nux vomica, and similar rough experiments were repeated from time to time with other substances by later investigators. ”

“ If there are colic pains in the bowels, use Colocynthis alternately with the others, giving it between them. If the patient was costive previous to the attack, and the dysentery came on without much looseness, Nux Vomica should be given alternately with Mercurius cor. If the disease comes on with a chill, or a chill occurs at any time during the attack, followed by fever, Aconite, Baptisia and Podophyllin should be used in rotation half an hour apart until a free perspiration is produced, and the pain diminishes ”

“ In a report of a poisoning case now on trial, where we are told that arsenic enough was found in the stomach to produce death in twenty-four hours, the patient is said to have been treated by arsenic, phosphorus, bryonia, aconite, nux vomica, and muriatic acid,—by a practitioner of what school it may be imagined. ”

“ It is a poison of great energy. It gave rise to so many fatal accidents soon after its introduction, that in some countries on the continent all the stores of angustura were ordered to be burnt. It contains a less proportion of strychnia, but more of the alkaloid brucia than nux vomica, the seed of the plant.
According to Andral, brucia is twenty-four times less powerful than strychnia; [2363] but the bark itself is as strong nearly as nux-vomica, for Orfila found that eight grains killed a dog in less than two hours. [2364]
The symptoms it induces are the same as those caused by nux vomica. ”

“ Some people employ strychnia, but such persons more often kill than cure their patients. Strychnia in any doses, however minute, is a violent poison to the dog. While at college I beheld animals killed with it; and there does not live the person who knows how to render this agent safe to the dog. Nux vomica, even, must be used in very minute doses, to be entirely safe—from a quarter of a grain to a small pup, to two grains to the largest animal. That quantity must be continued for a week, four pills being given daily ”

“ It is difficult to conceive, considering its intensely bitter taste, how any one could make it the instrument of murder. But a fact is stated in Rust’s Journal, which shows that it may be used for that purpose. At a drinking party one man wagered with another, that if he took a little Cocculus indicus in beer, he would be compelled to walk home on his head. The wager was taken and the potion drunk; but nux vomica was substituted for the Cocculus indicus, itself too a virulent poison; and the man went home and died in convulsions fifteen minutes afterwards. ”

“ Fomenting with warm water is useful.
Medicines
. Mercurius generally; Belladonna may be used when mumps follow an attack of measles.
954. Nettlerash
This rash, so called because in appearance it resembles the swelling and redness caused by the sting of a nettle, is generally produced by a disordered state of the stomach.
Medicines
. Aconitum napellus, Nux vomica, or Pulsatilla, in ordinary cases; Arsenicum is useful if there be much fever; Belladonna if the rash is accompanied with headache.
955. Piles
The ordinary homœopathic remedies for this painful complaint are Nux vomica and Sulphur. ”

“ It always affords more or less relief and is never attended with danger. Covering the wet cloths immediately with plenty of dry ones is very essential.
After the acute inflammation has subsided, it is well to have the bowels moved, but don't give drastic cathartics. Nux Vomica given at night and repeated morning and noon, will generally serve to cause an evacuation. ”

“ Workmen constantly exposed to the vapour of benzol are very subject to nervous irritability, and, where the apartment is ill-ventilated, even fits of nervous prostration and trembling, of a truly alarming character. In two or three cases which we have seen, the symptoms, to the inexperienced eye, closely resembled those occasionally resulting from the long-continued use of very minute doses of strychnia, or of the alcoholic extract of nux vomica. ”

“ And if you find something disagreeing with you, you can’t swear what it is. It may be the nux vomica in the beer; but it’s just as likely to be entozoa in the water, or copper in the last bottle of pickles. However, you’re all right now. With an analyst in the family, at anyrate you shan’t be poisoned without knowing it. I’ll let you know what you are eating and drinking.—This fellow’—and he patted the microscope affectionately—‘will tell you all about that.’ ”

“ We have said that stringent measures should be taken to guard the interests of the comparatively helpless consumers, so that they may have some reasonable ground for believing that in taking a glass of ale or beer they have not imbibed a dose of cocculus indicus, that a drink of whiskey does not of necessity imply an undefined amount of nux vomica, or that the symptoms resultant from a mixture of brandy and water at dinner are not due to strychnia or creosote. ”