upon different animals, and even upon those of the same species, appear to be rather uncertain, and not always in proportion to the quantity of the poison given. With some animals it produces its effects almost instantaneously; with others not till after several hours, when laborious respiration, followed by torpor, tremblings, coma, and convulsions, usually precede the fatal spasms, or tetanus, with which this drug commonly extinguishes life.

From four cases related of its mortal effects upon human subjects, we find the symptoms corresponded nearly with those which we have here mentioned of brutes; and these, as well as the dissections of dogs, killed by this poison, not shewing any injury done to the stomach, or intestines, prove that the nux vomica acts immediately upon the nervous system, and destroys life by the severity of its narcotic influence.

The quantity of the seed necessary to produce this effect upon a strong dog, as appears by experiments, need not be more than a scruple: a rabbit was killed by five and a cat by four grains: and of the four persons to whom we have alluded, and who unfortunately perished by this deleterious drug, one was a girl ten years of age, to whom fifteen grains were exhibited at twice for the cure of an ague. Loss, however, tells us, that he took one or two grains of it in sub. stance without discovering any bad effect; and that a friend of his swallowed a whole seed without injury.

In Britain, where physicians seem to observe the rule saltem non noscere, more strictly than in many other countries, the nux vomica has been rarely if ever employed as a medicine. On the continent, however, and especially in Germany, they have certainly been guided more by the axiom "what is incapable of doing much harm, is equally unable to do much good." The truth of this remark was lately very fully exemplified by the practice of Baron Stoerck; and is farther illustrated by the medicinal character given of nux vomica, which, from the time of Gesner till that of a modern date, has been recommended by a succession of authors, as an antidote to the plague, as a febrifuge, as a vermifuge, and as a remedy in mania, bypochondriasis, hysteria, rheumatism, gout, and canine madness.

In Sweden it has of late years been successfully used in dysentery; but Bergius, who tried its effects in this disease, says, that it suppressed the flax for twelve hours, which afterwards returned again. A woman, who took a scruple of this drug night and morn

ing, two successive days, is said to have been seized with convulsions and vertigo, notwithstanding which, the dysenteric symptoms retuined, and the disorder was cured by other medicines; but a pain in the stomach, the effect of the nux vomica, continued afterwards for a long time. Bergius, therefore, thinks it should only be administered in the character of a tonic and anodyne in small doses, (from five to ten grains) and not till after proper laxatives have been employed.

Loureiro recommends it as a valuable internal medicine in fluor albus; for which purpose he roasts it till it becomes perfectly black and friable, which renders its medicinal use safe, without impairing its efficacy.

[Gesner. Wepfer. Junghanns. Woodville.

SECTION VII.

Manchineel-tree.

Hippomane manicella.-LINN.

THERE are three species of the Hippomane, of which the one here referred to has leaves ovate, serrate, with two glands at the base. The milky juice of this tree is highly poisonous, and was at one time in frequent use among the Indians as a poison for the tips of their arrows. The poisonous property pervades nearly equally the fruit and the wood. Hence the incautious travelier, tempted by the appearance of the first, has often fallen a victim to the violence of its morbid stimulus: for the poison seems to depend on a peculiar acrimony alone; and hence also the tellers of the timber,,which on account of the closeness and beauty of its grain is in much esteem among our cabinet-makers, are compelled to dry the trunk by making fires around it, before they attempt to fell it; while the sawyers find it requisite to blind their eyes while sawing, to avoid ophthalmic inflammations, which the pungent aroma that fies about them is other. wise sure to produce. If the juice of this tree touch the skin, it generally blisters it; and if it fail on linen, it corrodes it like vitriolic acid, the spotted parts turning black, and terminating in holes. This is a West indian tree.

The manchineel tree affords furniture for slabs, interspersed with beautiful green and yellow veins like marble; but the dust of the

Mons. de la Condamnine says, in the abridged account of his voy. age, that "when he arrived at Cayenne, he had the curiosity to try whether this poison, which he had kept above a year, still retained its activity and at the same time whether sugar was really as effi cacious a counter poison as he had been assured. Both the experi ments were performed, he says, in presence of the commandant of the colony, of several officers of the garrison, and of the King's physician. A hen, slightly wounded with one of these little arrows, the point of which had been dipped in the poison thirteen months at least before the trial, blown through a trunk, lived half a quarter of an hour: another, pricked in the wing with one of these arrows, newly dipped in this poison diluted with water, and immediately drawn out of the wound, seemed to dose a minute after; convulsions soon came on, and, though we had made her swallow some sugar, she expired. A third, pricked with the same arrow, dipped again into the poison, having been instantly assisted by the same re. medy, shewed no signs of being indisposed, &c."

Mons. Herrissant was struck with amazement on reading these facts but his surprise was soon followed by a desire of repeating those experiments himself, and even of trying them on different sorts of animals. Mons. de la Condamine, to whom he imparted his intention, offered to satisfy his curiosity, and for that purpose made him a present of a certain quantity of this poison; and the result of the experiments, which he made with this same poison, forms the subject of this memoir.

He begins the detail of those experiments by that of two acci dents, which had like to have disabled him from prosecuting the work he had undertaken; having very narrowly escaped death. The first accident happened thus: M. de la Condamine had fore warned him, that when the Indians designed to use their poison, which in colour, consistence, and even in smell, has a great deal of resemblance to Spanish liquorice, they dissolved it in water, and then evaporated it on a slow fire to the consistence of a soft extract. M. Herrissant made this preliminary preparation in a small closet, in which a young lad was actually at work; and he did not think of making him quit it, because he did not imagine, that the poison, of which he intended to make trial, could produce any bad effects, without being introduced into the blood by the opening of a wound. Nor did he then recollect, what M. de la Condamine had told him

which is, that while they are preparing this poison in the country, they oblige some criminal old woman to take care of the boiling of this poison, after shutting her up alone in a separate place; so that when this woman dies, it is a sign that the poison is sufficiently boiled, and that it has all the qualities requisite to make it good. But he was soon made sensible of his imprudence; the door of the closet, where the young lad above mentioned staid, was open; and from the next chamber he saw that the lad, who had been there about three quarters of an hour, sat still, with his arms across. He began to reprimand him for his laziness, but he excused himself by answering, with a trembling voice, that he was sick at heart, and felt himself very faint. It is easy to imagine the uneasiness which this sight gave M. H.; but luckily it cost him no more than the fright. He made the lad come out of the closet immediately, let him down into the yard, and made him swallow a pint of good wine, in which he had dissolved a quarter of a pound of sugar. He recovered his strength by degrees, and was soon able to return to his own home, very merry and happy, without the least notion of the danger he had been in. Some days afterwards he came to M. H. and assured him that he had not felt the least indisposition since the day in question.

The fact above related was shocking enough to have made M. H. abandon his project; however curiosity got the better of his fear, and he even took a strong fancy to repeat the experiment. I would have been inhuman, not to say criminal, to make it on any other person but himself; therefore he resolved to run the risk, or rather persuaded himself, that he should run none, because he should be timely enough to flee from the danger, as soon as the effect of the poison should come to a certain pitch. Besides, he was encouraged by the good success of the foregoing example. Therefore he disposed every thing as at the first time, and he stayed in the closet. In about an hour's time he perceived his legs to bend under him, and his arms became so weak, that he could scarcely use them. He had but just time enough to come quickly out of the closet, and get down into the yard; where he ordered wine and sugar to be brought him, as he had before done for the young lad. Such was the first danger, which he incurred in preparing the American poison: the second was not inferior to it. After having dissolved the poison of Ticunas in water, and re

duced it to the consistence of an extract in the manner above de. scribed, he put it into a phial, which he stopped very exactly, and locked up in a desk till he should have occasion to use it in the experiments he intended to make. He began these experiments on the 6th of June, 1748; which was so hot a day, that he stripped to his shirt, and had his breast and arms exposed to the air. In his left hand he held the phial, the cork of which flew up to the ceiling with vast rapidity. At the same instant there issued out of this phial a yellowish vapour, of a very penetrating smell, which was soon followed by the extract itself, that spread itself all over the rim of the neck of the bottle. He was so stupified at this unexpected accident, that he imagined (as it was very possible) that the bottle was broken in pieces; and as soon as he saw his hands, arms and breast, coloured in several places by the poison, which had be sprinkled them in the explosion, he looked on himself as a dead man: which must certainly have been the case, if the bottle had burst, and the pieces of glass had scratched or cut him. But luckily that did not happen, and he soon resumed courage; when, after some minutes, he found himself quite as well as before the explosion of the poison, the effect of which is almost instantaneous; and it gave him no other trouble than to wash and dry himself very carefully.

From this accident he learned that this poison, thus prepared, ought not to be put into glass bottles close stopped, but should rather be kept in a glazed earthen pot, covered with paper only; since it was susceptible of so great an effervescence. Therefore he put it into a gallypot; and the experiments, which he made with this same poison a good while afterward, convinced him that there is no reason to apprehend that it would lose any of its activity by evaporation. These two facts plainly shew how much precaution ought to be taken, when this poison is to be used. And we shall be the better convinced of it when we consider, that one single drop conveyed directly into the blood by a puncture, &c. is sometimes sufficient to kill, or at least to cause great disturbance in the animal economy. It is quite otherwise when taken in at the mouth; for then it does no sort of mischief, as he proves in another place.

He then proceeds to the experiments, which he had repeated a number of times on different species of quadrupeds, birds, fishes, insects, and reptiles. But he first observes, that, of all those ani