NUTHATCH, in ornithology. See Sitta, its generic name. In this place we shall only extract from Buffon an account of two species of foreign birds related to the nuthatch.
1. The great book-billed nuthatch.—"It is the largest of the known nuthatches: its bill, though pretty straight, is inflated at the middle, and a little hooked at the end; the nostrils are round; the quills of the tail and of the wings edged with orange on a brown ground; the throat white; the head and back gray; the under side of the body whitish. Such are the principal properties of the bird. It was observed by Sloane in Jamaica.
"Its total length is about seven inches and a half; the bill, is eight lines and one third; the upper mandible a little protuberant near the middle; the mid toe, eight lines and one third; the alar extent, eleven inches and a quarter; the tail about twenty-three lines."
Plate CCCCXLVII 2. The spotted or Surinam nuthatch.—"This is another American nuthatch, with a hooked bill; but differs from the preceding in size, plumage, and climate: it inhabits Dutch Guiana.
"The upper side of the head and of the body is of a dull ash colour; the superior coverts of the wings of the same colour, but terminated with white; the throat white; the breast and all the under side of the body cinereous, and more dilute than the upper side, with white streaks scattered on the breast and sides, which forms a sort of speckling; the bill and legs brown.
"Total length, about six inches; the bill, an inch; the tarsus, seven lines and a half; the mid toe, eight or nine lines; and longer than the hind toe, whose nail is the strongest; the tail, about eighteen lines, consisting of twelve nearly equal quills, and exceeds the wings thirteen or fourteen lines."
Plates CCCCXLVIII and CCCCXLIX. NUTMEG. See MYRISTICA, its generic name. The tree which produces this fruit was formerly thought to grow only in the Banda Islands. It is now past a doubt, however, that it grows in the Isle of France and in all or most of the isles of the south seas. It seems a little remarkable that this trade, which is certainly a lucrative one, should have been so long monopolized by the Dutch. Their cunning and desire to retain it in their own hands seems to account for the idea that so generally prevailed formerly that it grew only in their settlements. It was reported as early as the year 1751, upon what appeared at that time to be good grounds, that it was likely to be produced in the West Indies. An English sailor said he had seen some trees in Jamaica, and the governor on inquiry found it so, and that they agreed exactly with the description given of those in the Spice Islands in the East Indies. This account, which was given in the Gentleman's Magazine for January 1751, we have never seen confirmed; and therefore we suppose that the expectations formed were either frustrated or premature: however, it is certain, as we have observed under the generic name, that a wild species of it grows at Tobago. To avoid repetition, or the appearance of prolixity, we must refer those who wish for further information respecting the trade in this article to M. P. Bonnerat's account of a voyage to the Spice Islands
and New-Guinea, which was printed at Paris in 1775, and translated into English and printed at Bury St Edmund's in 1781, &c. and to Bougainville's voyage, and Dr Hawkesworth's compilation of English voyages.
It will not, however, we trust, be deemed improper nor beside our purpose, if we lay before our readers the following account of the dangerous consequences of using this article to excess. It was given by Dr Jacob Schmidtus, published in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1767.
"A gentleman of Lower Silesia, about thirty-six years old, of a good constitution, and who enjoyed a good state of health, having felt, during some days, some cholic pains, took it in his head, by way of remedy, to eat four nutmegs, which weighed all together two ounces, and he drank, in eating them, some glasses of beer; which he had no sooner done, but he was seized with a great heat, a violent pain in the head, a vertigo and delirium, and was instantly deprived of the use of sight, speech, and of all his senses. He was put to bed, where he remained two days and two nights; his body was oppressed with lassitude, always drowsy, yet without being able to sleep. The third day he was in that lethargic state, which is called a coma vigilia, with a weak and intermitting pulse. Cephalic remedies, cordials, and among others the spirit of cephalic vitriol, and the essence of castoreum, were administered in good spirit of sal-ammoniac. The fourth day he recovered a little, but had absolutely lost his memory, so as not to remember the least thing he had done in his life. A continued fever then came on, accompanied by an obstinate watchfulness; a palpitation of the heart seemed to be the fore-runner of other symptoms, and he was finally struck with a palsy in all his limbs.
"At the expiration of eight days, he recovered the use of reason, and said, that during the first four days of his illness, he seemed to himself to have constantly a thick veil before his eyes, and that a great number of sparks and flashes continually issued from it. All the bad symptoms of this malady yielded at last successively to the continued use of remedies suited to his condition; and in three months time he was perfectly recovered, but he was particularly indebted for his cure to mercurial and ammoniacal remedies.
"According to chemical principles, it might perhaps be said, that the aromatic and oily salt contained in nutmeg, of which this patient had taken too large a dose, had immediately excited so great an agitation in the humours, and so rapid a motion in the animal spirits, as in some measure to partake of the nature of fire, and that a viscid and narcotic sulphur, which resides likewise in the nutmeg, though in a less sensible manner, being carried at the same time into the mass of blood, by suddenly fixing the animal spirits, and intercepting their course in the nerves, had afterwards caused the stupor in the limbs, the aphony, and the palsy. But I leave others to explain these phenomena; my only view, by communicating this observation, being to show that the immoderate use of nutmeg may be attended with very great danger."