Nux vomica is supposed by _Orfila_ to exert a specific action on the spinal marrow, thereby producing tetanus, immobility of the thorax, and consequently asphyxia, of which the animal dies. That this effect is produced by the absorption of the poison, and its passage into the circulation, is clearly established by the interesting and important experiments of _M. Majendie_.[459] COCCULUS INDICUS. This is the fruit of a shrub (_Menispermum Cocculus_) which grows naturally in the sand, in the midst of the rocks, on the coast of Malabar, in the island of Ceylon, and in other parts of the East Indies. The berries are imported into this country in a dry and shrivelled state. In India they are employed for killing fish, which they intoxicate and poison, when thrown into fish ponds. _M. Goupil_, a physician of Nemours, communicated to the Society of Medicine some interesting facts on the subject of this poison;[460] and he has shewn that it is not only destructive to fishes, but also to different carnivorous quadrupeds, and, very probably, to man. He also states that the poisonous principle of this substance is not sensibly changed by the gastric juices, and the vital action of the organs of digestion; but, on the contrary, that it passes into the absorbent system with all its properties unimpaired; and that the flesh of those fishes which have eaten it, irritates the stomach and bowels of the animals to which it is given, nearly in the same manner as the _Cocculus Indicus_ itself. All the fishes who eat it do not die in an equal space of time. _Roach_, _pollard_, _breme_, _perch_, _tench_, and _barbel_, are affected in an order corresponding with that in which they are here arranged; the _roach_ is killed the easiest of all; the _barbel_ is the last to die, and is moreover said to be, of all fish, the one whose flesh the most frequently occasions accidents in those animals who eat it; probably, says _M. Goupil_, because these fish, taking a longer time to die, the poison is longer subjected to the action of the digestive juices, and a considerable quantity of it is consequently absorbed.[461] Late experiments[462] have shewn that the active principle of the _cocculus Indicus_ is an alkaline body, crystallizable, bitter, and extremely poisonous; to this principle, _M. Boullay_ has given the name of _picrotoxine_, and the experiments of _M. Orfila_ have confirmed the idea of its constituting the only active element of the seeds. POISONOUS MUSHROOMS.