Malcolm. — Experiments on Tutin and Tutu Poisoning. 253 



Coriaria ang ustissima (40 grm . ) . 



First extract measured 862 c.c. (No. 216) 38 c.c. per kilo : very severe 

 symptoms ; recovered. Assuming from previous experiments that the dose 

 here was 7-5 mlgrm., the extract may be said to have contained 0-17 grm. 

 tutin. 



Second extract measured 862 grm (No. 211) 40 c.c. per kilo: slight 

 symptoms; recovered. (No. 218) 50 c.c. per kilo : more marked symptoms. 



The symptoms observed here corresponded to those produced by a dose 

 of about 5 mlgrm. pure tutin, and on that basis the extract would contain 

 0-107 grm. tutin. The total in 400 grm. leaf would therefore be 0-277 grm., 

 or a percentage of 0-069 ; but owing to pressure of other work the lethal 

 doses of the extracts of this variety were not so exactly determined as for 

 C. rusci folia. 



These experiments, so far as they go, indicate that there is little difference 

 between the actual amounts of tutin present in the two varieties. 



Protocols. 



[Only those experiments are described here that are not fully given in the text. 

 For future reference the experiments are numbered in continuity with those of Dr. 

 Fitchett's paper.] 



199. Rabbit, used for blood-pressure experiment, received 10 c.c. of 

 0-5 per cent, tutin injected intravenously in two doses. Animal killed 

 three-quarters of an hour after the first and half an hour after the last 

 dose. Vessels washed out with saline. Blood and washings were preci- 

 pitated with alcohol, but not examined till some four months later, then 

 extracted repeatedly with alcohol. The alcohol was driven off, and a 

 watery solution of the residue made up to 10 c.c. ; 2 c.c. of this was injected 

 into a rabbit without obvious effect, but l\ c.c. killed a 21 grm. frog in 

 twenty-seven hours, with symptoms of nervous disturbance, such as twitch- 

 ing of hind limbs — muscular weakness with irritable reflexes. 



225. 30 c.c. of fresh defibrinated rabbit-blood incubated five hours at 

 40° C. with 2-62 c.c. of 0-5 per cent, tutin was administered by stomach- 

 tube to a rabbit weighing 1-31 kilo ( = dose of 10 mlgrm. per kilo). Severe 

 tutin symptoms resulted, with recovery of animal. The dose here was 

 slightly above the usual fatal one. 



226. Mashed brain of recently killed rabbit + 5 c.c. of 0-5 per cent, 

 tutin, incubated overnight at 40° C. Extracted with alcohol, and watery 

 extract of residue made. A dose of this extract proved fatal to a frog, 

 while a similar dose of an extract of rabbit-brain without the addition of 

 tutin did not kill a control froa;. 



229. Cat, pregnant, weight 3-7 kilo, gave 3-7 c.c. of 0-5 per cent, 

 tutin solution (five years old). Dose, 5 mlgrm. per kilo ; actual amount, 

 0-0185 grm. Twitchings began in four minutes. To allow of complete 

 absorption of the dose, she was kept under A.C.E. anaesthesia for about 

 twenty minutes. The convulsions were largely modified in severity by 

 the anaesthesia. On removal of the anaesthesia they became very severe. 

 Animal was killed by bleeding forty minutes after dose given. Uterus 

 contained three foetuses. Brain and upper part of spinal cord weighed 

 27-5 grm. ; brains of foetuses, 7-5 grm. ; blood obtained, 56 grm. 



Cat's brain was mashed in mortar, extracted repeatedly with boiling 

 water, filtered, evaporated to 27-5 grm. ( = original weight). Tested with 

 Fehling before and after hydrolysis with HC1, but got no reduction. Some 



