394 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



Action on the Muscular System. 



The voluntary muscles escape unscathed in conia-poisoning, 

 the}' continuing to respond to galvanism for a long time after 

 death. The contractility of the muscles, however, may be de- 

 stroyed by soaking in a very concentrated solution of the alka- 

 loid, but before such an effect can be produced in life, the animal 

 will have perished. 



On the non-striated muscular fibres the action of the drug is 

 more pronounced ; Geiger (Mag. f. Pharrn. xxxv. S. 12 u. 256), 

 states that it produces irritation of the involuntary muscular 

 fibres of the diaphragm and alimentary canal. In the experiments 

 made by the writer, contractions of the muscular fibres of the in- 

 testinal canal and bladder were observed. 



Action on the Pupil. 



Dr. Hoppe (Die Nervenwirkung d. Heilmittel, Leipsic, Hft. 1), 

 made a number of experiments to determine this action of the 

 drug, and in conclusion says : In the beginning the pupil is con- 

 tracted, but later it becomes very much dilated. His conclusion 

 has been confirmed by Pelvette and Demourette (loc. cit.), who 

 attribute the contraction to augmentation of the excitability of 

 the spinal cord. 



The conclusions drawn by the writer from a number of exper- 

 iments made especially to determine this point, are as follows : 

 When conia is introduced ln'podermically, or given by the sto- 

 mach, the pupil never contracts, but sooner or later it always 

 dilates, this dilatation being due to the paresis of the peripheral 

 extremities of the ciliary branches of the motor-oculi nerve, no 

 longer enabling the sphincter of the iris to counteract the radi- 

 ating fibres supplied by filaments from the more slowly paralyzing 

 sympathetic nerve. When locally applied conia at first contracts 

 and then dilates the pupil, the dilatation occurring from the ab- 

 sorption of the drug. As the contraction did not occur when 

 conia was introduced hypodermically or given by the stomach, it 

 must be due to its local irritant action, and not to augmentation 

 of the excitability of the spinal cord. 



