PAL}[M 527 



with intensified expiration ; and very large doses rapidly stop 

 the breathing, esjjecially in cats. After introvenous injection 

 of a lethal dose the respiration usually ceases before the action 

 of the heart. 



The subcutaneous injection of 50 to 70 milligrams of 

 arecoline salts into dogs of 4 to 5 kilograms body -weight, 



besides strong irritation of the heart, gives rise to tetanic 

 cramps, which quickly give place to a partial paralysis. 



As a rule, how^everj the animals overcome the effects of such 

 doses, the heart resuming its action completely as the effects 

 pass off, but it becomes again affected through vomiting and 

 liquid evacuations in w^hich sometimes also worms are brought 

 away. An increased peristaltic action of the bowels is, how- 

 ever, provoked in rabbits, dogs, and cats by much smaller 

 doses. 



Intense poisoning of dogs, rabbits, and cats with areooline 

 may also be accompanied with so strong a contraction of the 

 pupils of both eyes, that in dogs and rabbits they do not show 

 larger than the head of a good-sized pin, whilst in cats they 

 are reduced to a mere streak. Instillation of arecoline solution 

 in an eye gives rise also to a strong one-sided narrowing of the 

 pupil, but the quantity required is so large that the production 

 of myosis in one eye may induce a flow of saHva in rabbits, 

 and affect the heart and respiration in cats. For this reason 

 the action of arecoline upon the human iris has not yet been 

 tested. 



It is in accord with observations made during the experi- 

 ments on animals that the organism may become gradually 

 tolerant to the poison of areca nut, as in the case of tobacco. In 

 tte opinion of Dr. Maum^ the physiological experiments 

 indicate that the nut mav prove a valuable article of tbe Materia 

 ^ledica, since there can be no doubt that arecoline hydro- 

 bromide is capable of being utilized therapeutically on account 

 of its effect on the peristaltic action of the bowels and also 

 in suitable combination as a cardiac remedy. Of the other 

 alkaloids which have been separated from areca nut, okohne 



