CHAPTER 7 



Pharmacology 



7.1: Colchicine in Medical Therapeutics and Forensic Practice 



The ninetCL'iith (cntui y medical literature contains many references 

 to Colchicion prc-jjarations.^^ 1 hese were widely used in the treatment 

 of gcjut. a disease in which se\ere jjain is associated ^\ith the deposition 

 of uric acid crystals near the joints. It was logical to attempt to cure 

 other ]xiinful joint ailments with the same drug, and references may 

 be found dealing with the treatment of various types of "rheuma- 

 tism." Ihe medical interest in the drug had two very different conse- 

 c|uences. Scientists took tip jirecise pharmacodynamic experiments in 

 order to reach a better luiderstanding of the therapeutic effects of col- 

 chicine. Various animals and organs were treated with the drug, and 

 important new facts wvve proclaimed in learned papers. .\ typical 

 paper of this t\ pe is that of Jacob], which suuniiari/es all that was 

 known of the drug in the 189()'s.-^-^' Frecjtient reference will be made to 

 it, and to a chapter contributed by Fuhner-' in Hetfter's textbook 

 of pharmacology. Most of the contributions of the last centiny are now 

 onlv of historical interest and will not be reviewed in this chajjter. 

 Today interest in colchicine pharmacology has been re\ ived,'--' and it 

 is apjiarent that man\ conclusions will ha\e lo be changed in the 

 light of modern work. In 1952. it was stated that the mechanism of 

 action of colchicine, from a j^harmacological ])oint of view, was "largely 

 unknown."--^ 



Another and more redoubtable consecpience ol ihe use ol the drug 

 against gout in the nineteenth centin\ was the increasing number ol 

 cases of fatal human poisoning.'^- '^ While one author is claimed to 

 ha\e taken as much as 20 mg. of colchicine in an experiment lo study 

 the toxic reactions,''' there are reports of severe physiological dis- 

 turbances and even death in jjatients that had absorbed only a few 

 milligrams of the diug.^"' It is cpiite dilluuh to compare all these 

 findings, for the j:)reparations of C.oU liicutn may have been different. 

 E\en after the crystallization of the alkaloid b\ Houde, preparations 



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