1877.) 015 [Haynes. 



Remarks. 



The recorded cases of Strychnia poisoning treated by Tobacco are ex- 

 tremely unsatisiaclory. If they prove anything, it is merely that Tobacco 

 is a powerful emetic. 



Haughton's experiments on this subject (really only two in number) 

 were performed in such an unscientific manner as to be utterly valueless. 



Wormley's and Reese's experiments would certainly seem conclusive, 

 were it not for the fact that the drugs were administered by the mouth : 

 therefore, since vomiting so generally occurred, we cannot feel certain that 

 the tobacco infusion was absorbed with sufficient rapidity, or in sufficient 

 quantitj^, to exert any possible antidotal power. 



From the experiments given in detail in the preceding pages, the follow- 

 ing inferences may, I think, safely be drawn : ' 



1. Strychnia and Nicotiu are in no degree antagonistic poisons. 



2. Strychnia increases the convulsive action, and does not diminish the 

 motor paralysis, ofNicotin.* 



3. Nicotin (even in paralyzing doses) increases the convulsive action of 

 Strychnia.f 



4. Both poisons cause death by paralyzing the respiratory apparatus. 

 They may effect respiration in different ways, but the result is the same. 



5. Animals may be killed by injecting together doses of the two drugs, 

 which, singly, are not fatal.:!: 



There is no reason to suppose that the above deductions are not applica- 

 ble to the human animal. The symptoms of poisoning by the two drugs 

 are identical in man and the lower animals. As regards Strychnia, this is 

 too well known to need further remark. In regard to Nicotin, it is only 

 necessary to refer the reader to the recorded cases of poisoning by that 

 drug.§ 



It may not be out of place to mention the fact that experimentation has 

 proven that Nicotin and Strychnia show a remarkable similarity in their 

 intimate action on the nervous system, both being excitants of the spinal 



* EXPS. 2.->, 27, 28, 29, ;{l), 42, 43, 44, 45, 4(), 88, 111, 131, etc. 



t Ex PS. 81, 83, 85, 88, 114, 117, 128, 131, 140, 143, etc. 



+ EXPS. 88, 111, 120, 143, etc. 



2(1) A man, who had swallowed a moutliful of tobacco, became suddenly and 

 completely paralyzed; convulsions set in; then vomiting and purging; and he 

 Anally died of exhaustion. (Edin. Medical Jonrnal, Vol. I., p. 643.) 



(2) A man received an enema of an infusion of two ounces of tobacco. In 

 seven or eight minutes, he became pale and stupid ; his speech was indistinct ; 

 and he complained of pains in the abdomen and head. There were convulsive 

 tremors, flr.st of the arms, then of the body. These symptoms were followed by 

 extreme prostration, and slow, laborious breathing ; then by coma, which termi- 

 nated by death eighteen minutes after the poison had been injected. (Tavignot, 

 Gazette Med. de Paris, Nov. 1840, p. 763.) 



(3) Btill6 gives the following symptoms in a case of poisoning by tobacco, in 

 the person of a young woman: Slow respiration, coma, opisthotonos, with 

 clonic convulsions of the extremities, dilated pupils. {T/ierap. and Mat. Med., 

 Vol. IV, p. 325.) 



(4) A man sat over a chaml)er-iiot containing some to')acco. on whii'li hot 



