Malcolm. — Experiments on Turin and Tutu Poisoning. 251 



The watery extract of blood obtained in the same way also measured 

 3 c.c. Half of it was injected intravenously into a small rabbit (weight, 

 671 grm.). Before the injection was finished it jerked its head backwards, 

 and when released fell over on its back, clawed the air in a convulsive 

 manner, and was dead in a few seconds. 



The remaining half of the extract was given hypodermically to another 

 small rabbit. During the injection the animal writhed as if in pain, later 

 on the latter half of the body became paralysed, the respiration became 

 very feeble, but in about half an hour it had completely recovered. 



Exp. No. 233 : The blood of a normal rabbit, measuring about 30 grm., 

 was treated in an exactly similar wa) r to that of No. 232, and the final watery 

 extract injected into the small rabbit that had survived {vide supra). No 

 symptoms followed, and there is little doubt but that the blood in this case 

 (232) contained some toxic body, although the symptoms produced were 

 not those of tutin. 



Other experiments bearing on this part of the subject are detailed in the 

 protocols of experiments 199, 229, and 244; but I consider the results less 

 conclusive here, because frogs frequently die when injected with foreign 

 material, and the blood, at least in cats, may give reduction without being 

 hydrolyzed, while in Exp. 244 the blood of a tutinized cat failed to give 

 the reduction test. 



These results indicate that the beneficial effects of bleeding can hardly 

 be ascribed to the removal of the poison in the shed blood, for the tutin 

 absorbed from ingested tutu is not likely to be present in such high con- 

 centration as in these experiments, and yet the blood in these cases had 

 comparatively feeble toxic power although the quantities used were 

 relatively large — certainly larger relatively than would occur in bleeding 

 as usually practised on sheep. 



Brain. — From Dr. Ford's statements one might be led to believe that 

 practically all of a moderate dose of tutin becomes concentrated in the 

 brain of the animal. As already stated, I was unable to confirm this by 

 the chemical test, and the- biological test, with one exception, also gave 

 negative results. Thus in the experiment described above (No. 232) the 

 hydrolyzed brain of the rabbit produced no effect. 



In Exp. 229 the extract of brain gave no reduction after hydrolysis, 

 but some reduction was obtained with the extract of foetal brains. This 

 latter point requires further investigation ; a reducing body may be normally 

 present. The result of injection of the hydrolyzed brain extract into a frog 

 is inconclusive, because the control frog, in which the extract was treated 

 with KOH to destroy the suspected tutin, also died. 



In Exp. 240 a -rabbit weighing 1,350 grm. received lOmlgrm. tutin 

 intravenously. The brain, with the spinal cord, weighing 10'3 grm., was 

 extracted with alcohol, and the extract was dissolved in water. One-third 

 of this solution was injected into a cat without effect. The material used 

 here was not hydrolyzed, and the absence of symptoms corresponds to 

 Ford's results. Another portion of the extract of brain was tested for 

 reduction after hydrolysis, without result. 



Exp. 244 similarly gave a negative result by the reduction method. 



The only experiment which gave some indication that the brain may 

 contain a toxic body was No. 236. In this case a young cat, weighing 

 760 grm., received the emulsified brain of rabbit 234, which had been 

 poisoned with lOmlgrm. of tutin. After about an hour it showed some 

 twitching of the ears, licking of its lips, swallowing movements, deliberate 



