_MENISPERMACE 2. t : BF 
an cintinens (10 grs.-to 1 02.), and is official. in the United 
P - States Pharmacopoeia. - 
When administered sitchonall: it stimulates all the ‘motor 
and inhibitory centres in the medulla, especially the respiratory 
and vagus centres. It also irritates motor centres, either in 
q the. oe or in —_ a ‘and cord, producing in all ver- 
Pt spasms, with periodic stoppage . 
‘of the motions of “the diaphragm and slowness of the pulse, 
wards or round in acircle (manage movements), or rolling of 
_the body on its axis. The temperature is somewhat raised. 
(Lauder Brunton.) Some preliminary experiments made by 
Professor Arpad ' Bokai go far to show that picrotoxin- is 
probably the best antidote for morphia poisoning. It is said 
to prevent paralysis of the centre of respiration, by which 
death from morphia is caused. It has. also exactly the 
posite effects of morphia on the pressure of the blood. 
Description.— A somewhat reniform purple fruit, the 
ize of asmall grape, growing in a long bunch, each branch 
f which supports from 1 to 8 of the drapes. The dry fruit 
is about the size ofa large pea, dark brown, and wrinkled ; = 
‘below the concavity on one side there is a circular scar, to 
which a portion of the peduncle sometimes remains attached ; 
above it is a small pointed projection, the remains of the style; 
-within.the dried pulp i is a-thin shell, which at the concave part 
of the fruit dips in deeply to form a placenta, which projects in . 
the shape of two lobes into its cavity, upon these the kernel is — 
oulded, and has consequently a cup-shaped form, the cavity — 
f the cup being marked by a longitudinal ridge, corresponding _ 
to the fissure between the tivo lobes of the placenta. . The ker- 
nel consists. oftwo layers of albumen, which, when separated, 
isclose a superior radicle, from which two thin cotyledons _ 
iverge, narrow at first, but afterwards widening. _ Coeculus — 
udicus is very bitter, and if kept long has a rancid oily sme 
: Microscopic structure.—The albumen is composed of 
hedral cells oanieining crystals of E faite matter, — 
