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 fourth 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 farther information respecting the trade in this article to M. P. Sonnerat's account of a voyage to the Spice Islands and New-Guinea, which was printed at Paris in 1773, Nutmeg, and translated into English and printed at Bury St Edmund's in 1781, &c. and to Bougainville's voyage, and Dr Hawkeworth'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 Schmidius, published in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1767.

"A gentleman of Lower Silesia, about thirty-five years old, of a good constitution, and who enjoyed a good state of health, having felt, during some days, some choleric 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 latitude, always drowsy, yet without being able to sleep. The third day he was in that lethargic state, which is called a coma vigil, with a weak and intermittent pulse. Cephalic remedies, cordials, and among others the spirit of cephalic vitriol, and the essence of caltoreum, 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 forerunner 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 to 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 aphonia, 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."