on the Ldving S^tenu 9 



- V I can conceive,** adds Fontana, „ nothing 

 more decisive and more certain than from this 

 series of experiments, that the action of opium 

 is not directly on the nerves/' 



2dly. Again^y<r/ Fontana immersed the 

 hearts of various animals immediately taken 

 Jfrom the thorax, into a strong aqueous solution 

 of opium, infusion of bark and simple water, 

 of equal temperatures and found that these 

 organs were deprived of irritability, and that 

 they ceased to contract, or to be capable of 

 being excited to contract, equally soon on im- 

 mersion into water as into a solution of opium 

 or infusion of bark. 



3dJy. H^ next injected an aqueous solution 

 of opium into the jugular vein of several rabbits, 

 and found that it produced death instant?i- 

 neously ; from this he concludes, as the heart 

 is not furnished with nerves, and having proved 

 that the solution of opium does not exhaust 

 the irritability of the heart, that it must occasion 

 death only by producing an alteration in the 

 condition of the fluids. 



; Jhe experiments with the 300 frogs, ^s 

 related by Fontana, I repeated though upon a 

 smaller scale, yet sufficient to ascertain the 



(c) Fonlana on Poisons, Vol. 2i p. 352—364. French 



Rlition, " • ' 



B 



