COCCULUS INDICUS

The fruit of the Afcmspermum cocculus, imported from the East Indies. It contains a poisonous principle, which has been termed picrotoxia. It is often used to poison fishes: a few handfuls of it ground into coarse powder, and thrown into a pond, bring the fish, in the course of a few hours, to the surface in an intoxicated or poisoned state; but if quickly removed into fresh water, they recover. It is sometimes added to ale to increase its stupefying quality. COCCUM. {Gr. xoxxojv, a pomegranate stone.) A term invented by Gartner to denote a pericarp of dry elastic pieces or cocci, as in Diosnia, . [s. 255]