[427] Maschka’s Handbuch, from Tschepke, Deutsche Klinik, 1861.
[428] Lancet, November 28, 1882.
In a similar case related by Dr. Harrison,[429] a man, aged 54, took a packet of Battle’s vermin-killer, mixed with about a drachm and a half of laudanum and some rum. At the time he had eaten no food for days, and had been drinking freely; yet fifty minutes elapsed before the usual symptoms set in, and no medical treatment was obtained until four hours after taking the dose. He was then given chloral and other remedies, and made a rapid recovery.
[429] Lancet, May 13, 1882.
§ 391. Action on Animals.—The action of strychnine has been experimentally studied on all classes of animals, from the infusoria upwards. The effects produced on animal forms which possess a nervous system are strikingly alike, and even in the cephalopoda, tetanic muscular spasm may be readily observed. Of all animals the frog shows the action of strychnine in its purest form, especially if a dose be given of just sufficient magnitude to produce toxic effects. The frog sits perfectly still and quiet, unless acted upon by some external stimuli, such as a breath of air, a loud noise, or the shaking of the vessel which contains it, then an immediate tetanic convulsion of all the muscles is witnessed, lasting a few seconds only, when the animal again resumes its former posture. This heightened state of reflex action has its analogue in hydrophobia as well as in idiopathic tetanus. If the frog thus poisoned by a weak dose is put under a glass shade, kept moist, and sheltered from sound, or from other sources of irritation, no convulsions occur, and after some days it is in its usual health. If, on the other hand, by frequent stimuli, convulsions are excited, the animal dies. M. Richet[430] has contributed a valuable memoir to the Academy of Sciences on the toxic action of strychnine. He has confirmed the statement of previous observers that, with artificial respiration, much larger doses of strychnine may be taken without fatal result than under normal conditions, and has also recorded some peculiar phenomena. Operating on dogs and rabbits, after first securing a canula in the trachea, and then injecting beneath the skin or into the saphena vein 10 mgrms. of strychnine hydrochlorate, the animal is immediately, or within a few seconds, seized with tetanic convulsions, and this attack would be mortal, were it not for artificial respiration. Directly this is practised the attack ceases, and the heart, after a period of hurried and spasmodic beats, takes again its regular rhythm. Stronger and stronger doses may then be injected without causing death. As the dose is thus augmented, the symptoms differ. M. Richet distinguishes the following periods:—(1.) A period of tetanus. (2.) A period of convulsion, characterised by spasmodic and incessant contraction of all the muscles. (3.) A little later, when the quantity exceeds 10 mgrms. per kilo., a choreic period, which is characterised by violent rhythmic shocks, very sudden and short, repeated at intervals of about three to four seconds; during these intervals there is almost complete relaxation. (4.) A period of relaxation; this period is attained when the dose exceeds 40 mgrms. per kilo. Reflex action is annihilated, the spontaneous respiratory movements cease, the heart beats tumultuously and regularly in the severe tetanic convulsions at first, and then contracts with frequency but with regularity. The pupils, widely dilated at first, become much contracted. The arterial pressure, enormously raised at the commencement, diminishes gradually, in one case from 0·34 mm. to 0·05 mm. The temperature undergoes analogous changes, and during the convulsions is extraordinarily elevated; it may even attain 41° or 42°, to sink in the period of relaxation to 36°. Dogs and rabbits which have thus received enormous quantities of strychnine (e.g., 50 mgrms. per kilo.), may, in this way, live for several hours, but the slightest interruption to the artificial respiration, in the relaxed state, is followed by syncope and death.