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.