DAVID I. MACHT AND MARGUERITE B. LIVINGSTON 581 



DISCUSSION. 



The results obtained with cocaine and its various other compounds 

 on the growth of lupine roots are interesting in themselves, but they 

 become much more so when compared with the effects of the same 

 substances on animal organs and tissues. The results of such a 

 comparison are shown in Table VII. In this table the first column 

 indicates the drugs used, the second column expresses the minimal 

 lethal doses of the same for Lupinus albus, while the other columns 

 indicate the corresponding effects on animal tissue. In Column 3 

 are shown the influence of cocaine and its decomposition products, 

 as well as various other mixtures, on the central nervous system. 

 These results are taken from a study by Macht and Bloom (8) con- 

 cerning the effects of cocaine on the behavior of white rats in the cir- 

 cular maze. In the fourth column the local anesthetic effects of the 

 various drugs are shown. In Column 5 the effects of cocaine and the 

 other drugs on skeletal muscle are described, the data being taken 

 from Kubota and Macht (9). In Column 6 the toxicity of the vari- 

 ous compounds for smooth muscle is indicated. These figures are 

 taken from the as yet unpubhshed studies of the effects of cocaine on 

 the smooth muscle of the bladder and ureters carried on by Macht 

 and Satani. Finally, the lethal doses of cocaine for cats are given in 

 the last column, the figures being taken from Heffter.^ 



It will be noted that, whereas cocaine is by far the most toxic of the 

 substances studied for animals, it is not nearly so toxic for plants. 

 The lethal dose of cocaine for cats is given as 0.02 to 0.04 gm. per kilo, 

 whereas to produce complete inhibition in the growth of the plant 

 a 2.04 per cent solution is required. Ecgonine hydrochloride is quite 

 toxic for animal tissues and, indeed, in the case of skeletal muscle it 

 paralyzed the contractions of the same in 45 minutes, an effect shghtly 

 more toxic than that of cocaine (55 minutes). The lethal dose of 

 ecgonine hydrochloride for lupine roots was comparatively very much 

 smaller than that of cocaine, a concentration of 0.55 per cent being 

 suf&cient to kill. Benzoyl ecgonine was much less toxic for lupine 

 roots than ecgonine itself, a result which ran parallel to the compara- 



^Poulssen, E., in Heffter, A., Handbuch der experimentellen Pharmakologie, 

 Berlin, 1920. ii.pt. 1,145 fl. 



