Nux Quotes

In the early twentieth century, for instance, opiates were widely used for all sorts of ills, even sold in syrup to calm colicky babies. Lithium baths prospered—vats of cool bubbling water said to soothe the troubled soul. Extract of conium, either on its own or coupled with iron, quinine, or Fowler’s solution, was used to treat depression, as was the plant extract nux vomica. Hyoscyamus, from the passionflower, was used to diminish sleeplessness or extreme excitement. There were tinctures of veratrine and belladonna and stimulants such as ammonia, lytta, and all kinds of aromatics in small amber jars you held just below the nostrils, sniffing in comforting drafts of lavender, rosemary, or cinnamon. So prevalent were and are attempts at biological cures, and so available for such a great span of time, that nonphysical therapies, such as psychoanalysis and other “talking cures,” are in fact the real oddity, a brief blip in what has otherwise been a mostly somatic approach to the treatment of human suffering in all its manifestations.

Now, old man,” said I, “you’ve often told me you used to go bare-legged and bare-backed in your own island, so I’m going to ask you to go bare-legged a little while now, and lend me those trousers.” “Wha’ for, Mars Sam?” “To put the gold grains in, of course. The robbers may look for the sacks of gold, when they come back, but they’re pretty sure not to open them. Therefore, my friend we’ll fix it so that they’ll think their gold is all safe.” “How, Mars Sam?” “By filling the sacks with sand, and burying them again where we found them.” Nux looked at me admiringly, and grinned until his mouth stretched from ear to ear and displayed every one of his white teeth.

TEMPERAMENT belladonna, 479 calcarea ostrearum, 479 capsicum, 512 chamomilla, 283 cina, 282 ignatia, 221, 222 ipecacuanha, 446, 452 lycopodium, 520 nux vomica, 204, 205, 215 pulsatilla, 221, 406 staphysagria, 398