Of Poisoning with Nux Vomica.
Tests of Nux Vomica.—Nux vomica, the most common of these poisons, is a flat, roundish seed, hardly an inch in diameter, of a yellowish or greenish-brown colour, covered with short silky hair, and presenting a little prominence on the middle of one of its surfaces. In powder it has a dirty greenish-gray colour, an intensely bitter taste, and an odour like powder of liquorice. It inflames on burning charcoal, and when treated with nitric acid acquires an orange-red colour, which is destroyed by the addition of protochloride of tin. Its infusion also is turned orange-red by nitric acid, and precipitated grayish-white with tincture of galls.
Orfila and Barruel have made some experiments on the mode of detecting it in the stomach, and the following is the plan recommended by them. The contents of the stomach, or the powder, if it can be separated, must be boiled in water acidulated with sulphuric acid. The liquid after filtration is neutralized with carbonate of lime, and then evaporated to dryness. The dry mass is then acted on with successive portions of alcohol, and evaporated to the consistence of a thin syrup. The product has an intensely bitter taste, yields a precipitate with ammonia, becomes deep orange-red with nitric acid, and will sometimes deposit crystals of strychnia on standing two or three days.[1] By this process Dr. R. D. Thomson, in a case which proved fatal in three hours, detected nux-vomica, although vomiting had been induced by emetics.[2]
These experiments it is important to remember, because, contrary to what takes place in regard to vegetable poisons generally, nux vomica is often found in the stomachs of those poisoned with it.
Its Mode of Action and Symptoms in Man.—The poisonous properties of nux vomica are now well known to the vulgar; and in consequence it is occasionally made the instrument of voluntary death, although no poison causes such torture. 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.[3]
Many experiments have been made on animals with nux vomica; but the first accurate inquiry was that of Magendie and Delille read before the French Institute in 1809. The symptoms they remarked were precisely the same with those produced by strychnia. Half a drachm of the powder killed a dog in forty-five minutes, and a grain
