Volume 2

Medical botany : or, illustrations and descriptions of the medicinal plants of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin pharmacopoeias; comprising a popular and scientific account of all those poisonous vegetables that are indigenous to Great Britain / by John Stephenson and James Morss Churchill.

Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical botany : or, illustrations and descriptions of the medicinal plants of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin pharmacopoeias; comprising a popular and scientific account of all those poisonous vegetables that are indigenous to Great Britain / by John Stephenson and James Morss Churchill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Qualities and Chemical Properties.—The taste of the vomic nut which is the seed of the fruit or berry, is in- tensely bitter; it has little or no smell, and is so hard that it cannot be reduced into powder by beating, but requires to be filed down. According to an analysis by M. Chevereul, it consists of acidulous rnalate of lime, gum, vegeto- animal matter, bitter matter, fixed oil, colouring matter, (which was yellow, and propably starch, which could not be directly extracted on account of its dessiccation ;) earthy and alkaline salts, woody hairs^ and wax, which appears to preserve the perisperm from humidity. Messrs. Pelletier and Caventou have since discovered two peculiar vegetable alkalies, strychnine and brucine, which are fully adverted to under the head of medical properties, and for the account of which we are indebted to an ex- cellent translation of Majendie, by Joseph Houlton. Esq. F.L.S. Poisonous Effects.—It is very generally believed amongst the lower class of people in this country, that nux vomica (by them called rat’s-bane,) is capable of poisoning animals only; and on a coroner’s inquest held daring the last year, a juryman observed, that the vulgar imagine it will not produce death to those persons who are bom blind. So strongly, he said, was he impressed with this idea, that he should have had no hesitation in taking a quantity of it, before he had heard, on the present occasion, of its baneful effects on the human constitution. Nux vomica is one of the narcotico-acrid class of poisons, and seems to have a direct power over the spinal cord. It produces labori- ous respiration, which is followed by torpor, trembling, coma, convulsions and death. It is fatal to dogs, hares, wolves, foxes, cats, rabbits, rats, ducks, crows, and other birds; and Loureiro poisoned a horse by an infusion made of the seeds in a half-roasted state. “ Hoffman reports that a young girl, ten years of age, la- bouring under an obstinate quartan fever, took, at two doses, fifteen grains of nux vomica : she died in a short time, after having experienced extreme anxieties, and having made some efforts to vomit.”