POISONS. 219 



poisoning in the higher animals. Death, however, 

 is always in the fully expanded form. 



It seems desira})le to supplement these remarks 

 with a few additional ones on the effects of this 

 poison on the naked-eyed Medusoe. In the case of 

 Sarsia the symptoms of strychnia poisoning are not 

 well marked, from the fact that in this species 

 convulsions always take the form of locomotor 

 contractions. The symptoms, however, are in some 

 respects anomalous. They are as follows. First 

 of all the swimming motions become considerably 

 accelerated, periods of quiescence intervening be- 

 tween abnormally active bouts of swimming. 

 By-and-by a state of continuous quiescence comes 

 on, during which the animal is not responsive to 

 tentacular irritation, but remains so to direct 

 muscular irritation, giving one response to each 

 direct stimulus. The tentacles and manubrium are 

 much relaxed. In a sea- water solution just strong 

 enough to taste bitter, this phase may continue for 

 hours ; in fact, till a certain opalescence of the con- 

 tractile tissues — which it is a property of strychnia, 

 as of most other reagents, to produce — has ad- 

 vanced so far as to place the tissues beyond recovery. 

 If the exposure to such a solution has not been very 

 prolonged, recovery of the animal in normal water 

 is rapid. In a specimen exposed for two and a half 

 hours to such a solution, recovery began in half an 

 hour after restoration to normal water, but was never 

 complete. In all cases, if the poisoning is allowed 

 to pass beyond the stage at Avhich response to direct 

 muscular irritation ceases, the animal is dead. 



